Indifferent Infatuation
by Last Haven
Summary: Because love doesn't always follow the smoothest, easiest course. Also it doesn't help if your older brother wants to kill your boyfriend. 50 oneshots of Lily Luna/Scorpius stumbling to what might be love. Various genres besides romance and humor included
1. Offering

This is a response to the 50 Art of Words Challenge. In case my selection for characters confused you, this story is about Lily Luna Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. This is my first time really writing for the Harry Potter fandom, so I'd love to hear back from you the readers on what you think, that's including constructive critism.

Note-chapters will not always follow each other in contiunity, so I will stay which chapter belongs to which contiunity. (For example, this chapter has at least two other chapter "sequel"s to it, but that doesn't mean the others will too.)

**Prompt: "Offering"**

* * *

"Malfoys," Scorpius's father, Draco, would say, "do not have _bad days_—we have days in which we are temporarily set back for various reasons. But Malfoys will always come out on top in the end."

"Greengrasses on the other hand," his mother added, greatly amused, "can and will have set backs and bad days. I had a set back AND a bad day when I married your father."

Scorpius supposed that this meant his Greengrass blood was particularly strong today because he certainly didn't feel like he was going to come out on top. Today he had fallen off his broom during Quidditch practice and broke his arm; Madame Pompfrey had fixed it in a snap, but that wasn't the problem—the problem was she said she was going to write to his parents despite his pleas. This meant that all of the coming week his mother would assail him with letters asking after his health and telling to quit his favorite sport to take up something less dangerous. His father would send letters too—asking after him, demanding to know who he should punish for the injury (be it the broom making company or his team's captain and his family), and warning him that if he quit Quidditch, he would disinherit him. His parents were overdramatic like that; honestly, he half expected the first letters by dinner tonight.

This cast a rather dreary look on the rest of his week, but his other problem was that while he had broken his arm, everyone else in his year and above had left for a Hogsmeade trip. Madame Pompfrey had refused to let him go, lest he manage to hurt his arm again before it healed up completely.

So, not only was he left behind with a bunch of first and second years, missing out on what was probably some great fun, he had a week full of his parent's over-the-top correspondence to look forward to, which he would no doubt have to respond to each time. _Joy_.

He escaped the Hospital Wing as soon as possible; his father had enjoyed hamming up his injuries but this was not one of the traits Scorpius had inherited from his father. He fled out to the snowy grounds and hid under a tree at the Great Lake's shore. He flopped in a matter dignified enough for a Malfoy and proceeded to brood.

There really wasn't much for him to do, he surmised. This had been the last Hogsmeade trip before Christmas holidays and while he had already finished any Christmas shopping, he had planned to at least spend some of his considerable pocket money at Honeyduke's or Zonko's. He had been planning it for the last few days and now it was all for naught.

Sighing, he hunkered down. "I'd kill for a butterbeer," he grumbled. For a long moment, he stared dully at the frigid waters before him, trying to not think of much, or at the very least not of his parents' impending letters or how much fun he was missing or how good an acid pop sounded at the moment or-

He tensed as he heard a twig snap next to him; he whipped his head around to tell off whoever it was that had come up when he saw who it was exactly.

It was the Potter girl. Lili or Lily or something, he couldn't remember. Unlike her (annoying) older brothers, little Lily (was that her name? He really had to ask someone, know your enemy and all that) was not a Gryffindor—she was a Hufflepuff first year. She didn't look much like her brothers either with her red hair smooth and cut like a helmet. She shared James's brown eyes and her cousins', Rose and Hugo, freckles but she didn't really look much like any of them.

"What do you want?" he growled at her. Of all the things he didn't need, a Potter brat topped the list. "What, come to taunt me? 'Big, bad ol' Malfoy went and hurt himself so he had to stay at school like a good boy', eh? 'Serves him right, getting left behind', right? Huh? Answer me!"

She stared bemusedly at him for a moment, not saying anything. It was a bit unnerving.

"What? Don't feel like taunting me when I can talk back? Afraid I'll hex you? …say something, damnit!"

He blinked as she held out a yellow handkerchief with a hand stitched Hufflepuff badger on it.

"What's this? What, feeling bad for me? Expect me to start crying something? I don't need your pity."

Her mouth quirked up. "You have a bogey hanging from your nose."

"…oh?"

She handed it to him. "You can keep it. Grandmum Weasley will just make me another. Merry Christmas," she called to him as she turned and walked away.

He stared after her for a moment before looking down at the handkerchief, his ears burning.


	2. Compatibility

**Prompt: "Compatibility"**

* * *

No one quite knows which student it was that brought up the subject of the Yule Ball, but it is known that whoever it was brought it up in Herbology, mainly because someone had wanted to know what it was like and Professor Longbottom would have been there. As it was, the question distracted him from his lecture on the _mimbulus mimbletonia,_ causing him to accidently poke it wrong, and sending a shower of green stinksap all over him and the unfortunate students next to him. After he used his wand to clean him and the few students, he frowned.

"Why do you want to know about the Yule Ball?" he asked, setting his plant down before he managed to rain green sap down again.

"C'mon, Professor; what was it like?"

"Were the Weird Sisters actually there?"

"Was there a lot of dancing?"

"Was it fun?"

"Do you think we could do it again?"

Professor Longbottom frowned, and raised his hands to shush his class. "Hold on, one at a time." Now that he had their attention, he tried to answer the questions (that he could remember). "It was nerve racking and embarrassing but plenty of people enjoyed it. Yes, the Weird Sisters were there. Since dancing is the main feature of the whole thing, yes, there was lots of dancing. And to be honest, no, we won't."

There was a lot of groaning at the final answer, and he could see them beginning of the protests already.

"If you guys want it that bad, petition the headmistress," he suggest then raised his brows. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to return to teaching my class." Pleased to see that they were at least giving up the subject for now and settling back down, Professor Longbottom returned to his lecture, certain that that was the end of it. What he didn't know was that as soon as his class was over, several students would actually draw up the petition, and get an alarming large amount of their fellow students to sign it. He certainly never imagined them delivering it to Professor Sprout's desk, and for her to actually agree.

Being headmaster or mistress must do something to one's sense of humor Professor Longbottom decided, but he agreed to chaperone the students anyway.

While Professor Longbottom's reaction was decidedly lukewarm, the students were ecstatic. The students got into the mood very quickly, writing home to beg for dress robes, clumping together in large groups to either gossip or bemoan the ordeal, circulating rumors and coming up with theories as to the entertainment/food/decorations for the Yule Ball as it came closer. Even Lily wasn't above getting in on the act as she browsed fashion magazines, and tried to figure something she could with her barely shoulder length hair.

The entire castle was practically buzzing the night the Yule Ball was to be held—only two days before winter holiday, and when most students would leave Hogwarts to go home for Christmas. Lily spent half the afternoon in her dormitory along with her roommates, trying to get ready. Helena Bennett helped her into her dress, an off the shoulder iridescent ice blue number, while Gwen Price helped her gel her hair into something classy looking. After that, she was either helping the other girls, or trying to remember where she put everything like shoes or jewelry.

When it was time to go, her and her roommates dawdled for a bit, fluttering about like a group of nervous pigeons. Finally Ariadne Jones managed to calm them down enough to get them out of the room, and up to the common room. There they separated, some of the girls having dates with other Hufflepuffs while Lily took a steadying breath, and left to find her own date.

Alfred Cattermole was a sweet Ravenclaw friend of her cousin Rose so when he had asked Lily to the ball about a week earlier she had only thought about if for a minute before she agreed. He was suitably handsome and nicely dressed, but he was very stiff as he offered her his arm, and led her down to the Great Hall. Any attempts of conversation were met with curt replies so Lily gave up quickly, and looked around for her friends. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long before Lucy and Molly Weasley, Percy's twin girls, appeared at her side and dragged her away from Alfred.

"You must be daft, going with that guy," Molly huffed, pulling her over to where many of their family, including Albus and Hugo, sat waiting.

"He looks he's heading off to get a Dementor's Kiss," Lucy added in distaste.

"He's not that bad really," Lily tried to argue. "He's just…"

"God, sis, you sure can pick 'em," Albus grinned at her as the twins sat her down. Molly and Lucy made identical agreeing noises as they sat on either side of her.

Rose sighed. "Poor Alfred—he's even worse with girls than Hugo is."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Hugo demanded.

Rose blinked owlishly, but failed at properly hiding her amusement. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help noticing that you're lacking a date for tonight."

"I am not," he insisted, this time puffing out his chest.

Fred grinned and leaned closer to him. "She invisible, or just in your imagination, Hugh? Cause I don't see any-"

Lily couldn't help but be distracted (along with the rest of them besides Fred and Hugo) as Wren Frost, lovely in a white empress cut gown with a delicate wire headdress that Lily recognized as Wren's own creation, walked up behind Hugo, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Hugo jumped, but when he saw her he got a dopey grin on his face. "Mister Hugo, would you prefer to dance with me now or would you like to get a butterbeer first?"

"Ah, dancing would be fine," he answered then nearly tripped himself as he tried to get up. Wren smiled at him, and took his arm before nodding in greeting to Lily then walking out to the dance floor.

Their entire table sat in shocked silence as they watched the couple wander off. Finally Lily spoke. "So that's who she was planning to go with…"

Rose's eyes were very wide still. "Hugo's going with a Slytherin...dad's going to be so mad."

Molly coughed. "Lily, did you really not know that they were coming together?"

Lily shook her head. "Not a clue."

"But they're your best friends," Albus pointed out.

"I think it is _très romantique_," Dominique sighed dreamily. Louis made a disgusted face at her.

"It's certainly unexpected," Roxanne giggled. When she started giggling, the rest of them could hardly contain their own laughter. Finally, they began to drift apart, mainly to find their dates, and have fun on their own. When Lily went looking for Alfred, she found him nursing a butterbeer, and trying his hardest not to be noticed by her. Taking the hint, she frowned, and walked out of the Great Hall only thinking of fresh air, and if the brisk air stung her eyes enough for a tear or two, that was quite acceptable, wasn't it?

She meant to sit down at one of the benches in one of the magically heated courtyard, but she was distracted by a groan from the other side of the courtyard. To her surprise, she found Scorpius Malfoy, dashing in sharp charcoal dress robes, cradling his foot, and cursing quietly beneath his breath. In spite of herself, Lily raised her eyebrows as curiosity over took her. Finally, she couldn't resist, and she walked over. "Hiding, Malfoy? That's not very like you."

The Slytherin prefect glared up at her as he tried to rub his foot. "I happen to be mourning my foot, thank you. You can shove off."

A Hufflepuff through and through, Lily felt a stab of concern run her through. She bit her lip, and crouched down to inspect the foot. "Here, let me see."

Scorpius tried to pull his foot closer, not that he could do much, since he already had it in his lap, and he couldn't bend it much closer than it already was. "And what makes you think I'd agree to that, Potter?"

She frowned at his stubbornness, but remained crouched down. "Because I _am_ the sister of James Potter—who do you think mended him and Al up when they managed to hurt themselves pulling those stunts of theirs?"

Malfoy didn't say anything, but merely glared. Lily, however, was the daughter of Ginny Potter, the reigning champion of staring down, and was no pushover herself, so he was the one to finally look away. "There's not much worse you could do anyway," he grumbled at last, letting her take his injured foot into her hands to inspect it.

"Actually, my father had his arm de-boned once when someone tried to fix one of his injuries," Lily smiled sweetly at her triumph, and began to daintily prod at his foot. The toes and half the foot were covered in bruises and were swelling already. She hissed softly in sympathy.

"That's not very reassuring, you know," he pointed out, flinching every now and then, but kept mostly quiet.

"Just be glad I know more than the idiot that tried to help him," she replied. "It doesn't look sprained, but it sure is bruised to hell."

"Feels like it looks then," he hissed as she brushed a finger against the swelling. "Ease up there, will you?"

"Hold still, I'll take care of it-" she began, but he quickly pulled his foot back.

"I don't think I'd…" She glared, and snatched his foot. "OW. _Ow_, oh, fine, but it'll be your head if it gets worse—stop pulling already!"

She smirked. "I'll keep that in mind," she retorted smugly. She pulled her wand out from where she had tucked it in her garter belt, and began to heal his foot.

"Very James Bond-ish of you, Potter," Scorpius commented, raising a brow when she brought out her wand.

"You watch James Bond?" she asked, surprised.

He shrugged. "Aunt Daphne's got weird tastes in what she watches."

She shook her head, and returned to his foot. "What did you do to this foot anyway?"

"Let's just say Deborah Runcorn hasn't a clue on how to waltz," he answered tightly.

"You mean _she_ did this by _stomping_ on it?" she asked, horrified on his account. "God lord, Malfoy, I would have thought a centaur had done it—here, try wiggling your toes."

"Yes, well, we can't all be excellent dancers," he muttered before wiggling his toes like she ordered. "Well, I'll be, Potter. Not bad at all."

"You're welcome," she said, rolling her eyes at him. She watched him curiously as he put his sock and shoe back on. "So you can dance then?"

Scorpius glared a bit at her. "Been doing it since I was six," he admitted.

Lily bit her lip to keep from grinning. "And your father approved?"

He stood, rolling his eyes now. "He said it was good for my posture."

"Huh," she muttered, sitting down on the bench before he could reclaim it.

He looked at her, looking caught between amused and befuddled. "What?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Just weird, imaging you needing dancing lesson to help with bad posture."

He raised a brow and frowned. "Now why would you say that?"

"Because…" she started. "You're a Malfoy."

He smirked at her. "Why is it that if I say something like that, people think I'm being a prig, but if someone else says it, it's fine?"

She grinned playfully at him. "Because you _are_ a prig." He shook his had at her, and she fought not to laugh. "Although, you know, I'm not I trust this 'dancing since I was six' business."

He frowned, but then tilted his head up, nearly smirking down at her again. "Shall I prove it to you?"

She raised her brows. "Are you asking me to dance, Malfoy?"

He smugly offered her his hand. She frowned playfully, and sized him up. After a moment, she placed her hand in his, and he pulled her up. She had to fight from laughing as he placed her hand on his shoulder before putting his at her waist then taking her other hand in his free one. He looked down imperiously at her. "Ready, Potter?"

"Just start dancing." And so they did; he swept her up into an effortless waltz that even her inexperienced feet found easy to follow. She caught to him within a few steps, and she realized suddenly that he had her going round and around the courtyard already. She would have laughed, but he was looking at her expectantly. She frowned at him, but her eyes still bespoke amusement. "Alright, I admit—you're good."

He smirked. "I should be after eleven years of it."

She couldn't help but laugh. "You've been practicing for eleven years or dancing for that long?"

To her shock, suddenly he dipped her. She nearly yelped, and he looked very smug. "Does it really matter?"

"Show off," she giggled.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Startled, Scorpius and Lily both looked up to see Rose smiling softly at them. Flustered, Scorpius quickly pulled her up, and they nearly jumped apart. "No, you weren't, Weasley," Scorpius answered. "In fact, I was just about to leave."

"Fancy that. And here I thought you were flirting with my cousin while hiding from your date—as well as you, Lily."

The two shifted guilty, and Scorpius moved to brush past Rose when suddenly he paused, and looked up. "Oh, no."

"Oh, dear," Rose said agreeably. Above them, in the arch of the doorway, someone had hung a sprig of mistletoe. Scorpius tried to back away, but Rose merely snatched his collar. Lily gaped as her cousin pressed a kiss onto the startled Scorpius's cheek before letting go. "This doesn't mean we're dating, Malfoy, but someone's got to uphold tradition."

Confused and very flustered, Scorpius choked out "Right."

Rose turned to leave herself but before she did, she raised her brows specifically at Lily. Lily pressed a hand to her mouth to try, and keep from giggling, not that she succeeded very much. Malfoy gave her a wide eye look of horror. Finally, she moved to join him. "Merry Christmas, Malfoy-"

Before she could move past him however, to follow Rose, he caught her arm. She looked quizzically up at him, and then followed his amused gaze upward. In her glee, she had forgotten the mistletoe which hung very innocently from the doorway. "Oh, dear," he said, barely controlling his laughter.

"Oh, no," she answered, grinning lightly. They stared at each other for a moment before he bent his head down to brush his lips against hers. She tried not to grin, but failed miserably.

"Now, that's _très romantique_!"

Lily and Scorpius both turned to stare incredulously at who had spoken; half hanging out a window, Roxanne, Dominique, Percy's twins, and Albus laughed at the looks on their faces. Roxanne, who had interrupted them, wolf whistled at them, but Albus gave Scorpius a very stern look.

"Scorpius, just let me say this—you break my sister's heart, and I'm breaking your face. Got it?"

Scorpius and Lily looked at each other stunned for a moment. "Why is it your family seems set on interrupting us?"

She giggled then let her head fall against his shoulder, hiding her blushing face.


	3. Stranger

**Prompt: "Stranger"**

* * *

The drive to the platform wasn't a long one, but for the entire way there Lily had to sit on her hands to keep from squirming. This was it: her first year at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. James and Albus teased her for her anxiety while her mother kept trying to reassure her. Her father would send her supportive smiles whenever he glanced up at her in the rearview mirror, but mostly he remained quiet. When they finally arrived, she felt excitement beginning to bubble up again and whatever worries she had dissipated for a moment for the anticipation of a new journey.

"Everybody out," Harry ordered superfluously; James and Albus were fighting to get out the same door while Lily slipped eagerly out her side. She practically bounced in place while her father began to unload the luggage onto three trolleys. In her arms, she clutched her Northern White-faced Owl, Isolde, while her father finished loading up her trolley. Finally, he shut the trunk and nodded to them.

"Okay, everyone has everything? James, your broom in there? Lily, got your books?" their mother asked. Her and her brothers groaned at the questions; she had already asked twice before.

Harry grinned at his children. "Let's go then."

Aside from the fact that she was leaving with her brothers this year, the whole trip to Platform Nine and Three Quarters and through the barrier seemed just like the years beforehand. They met up with Uncle Ron and his family, along with Uncle George's and Uncle Bill's as well. This year, not only was James, Albus, Lily, Dominique, Rose, and Hugo going, George and Angelina's son, Fred (the second) would be joining them. Uncle Percy's daughters, Molly and Lucy, were somewhere among the crowd, and Roxanne, George's daughter, tearfully watched as nearly all her cousins left. Teddy and Victoire, and her brother, Louis, from his perch on his father's shoulders also showed up to watch them off.

After many kisses and hugs, (and tears) from their parents and relatives, all the students new and old hurried into the train. Lily practically hung out a window as the train pulled away, waving until the station became a blurry speck in the distance. By the time Albus pulled her back in, the other girls had disappeared, heading to find their fellow housemates and friends. Albus helped Rose, Fred, and Hugo pick out a compartment and stow their luggage before leaving himself. "I'll come back later. I'm sure everyone else will check up on you guys every now and then."

Lily settled in but her excitement and anxiety made every moment stretch on and on. Fred chased after the witch with the snack cart and before long, Hugo fell asleep. "Fat lot of help you are," she muttered, smiling softly at her favorite cousin. He snorted in his sleep and shifted.

Being left alone, practically abandoned she mused, was quite boring; all she could do was sit there, pumping her legs back and forth. She could chase after the trolley witch like Fred—her father had given her more than enough spending cash to splurge on some—or she could go find some of her relatives like James had done. She could even try poking around to try and make new friends but the more she thought it, the more she thought she was quite happy were she was at the moment. Every fiber of her being seemed to long for the trip to be over already and arrive Hogwarts at last. She wanted to do it all—ride in the boats, get sorted, join her house; she even looked forward to going to her lessons. She wanted to do it all, and she wanted to do it _now_, but since she had to wait, she just sat there kicking her legs and tried not to afflict others with her anxiety. She double checked to make sure Hugo was out like a light before she quickly changed into her robes.

Albus poked his head in every now and then but Fred seemed to have vanished, probably making new friends in some other compartment. Lily was half tempted to just poke Hugo awake when the compartment's door opened again. She looked up, expecting to see Albus, only to see a boy's face she didn't recognize. It was a pale, pointed face, nothing like Albus or James's. The boy had the fairest blond hair she'd ever seen, even paler than Aunt Fleur's or Louis's, and he had a pair of washed out grey eyes, like the sky after a storm. He raised a brow at her staring.

"Has Potter come by here yet?" he asked, his voice dry and seemingly uninterested.

Lily frowned. "Who do you mean? James or Albus?"

"Albus," he answered, acting as though it should have been obvious to her.

Lily disliked him instantly. "Yes, but he'll be back in a bit, no doubt."

He looked at her for a moment before peering around the compartment again, eying her drooping cousin warily before he stepped in and shut the door behind him. He grabbed his robes and sat so that he didn't wrinkle them. Lily twitched and longed desperately for Hugo to wake up and…do something. Chase this snooty boy away if possible.

"What are you doing?" she asked, glaring.

He raised a brow and looked at her like she was an idiot. "I'm waiting for Potter to come back of course."

"_Why?"_

"That's really none of your concern," he said shortly then turned his gaze to the compartment's door, looking out its window, waiting for her brother to come. Lily huffed and turned to look out her window to the countryside. The view was ruined to her though; every moment he stayed sitting there, the more she wanted to get up and chase him out herself.

It was such a relief to see Albus return that she nearly sighed. Albus looked at Scorpius curiously. "Hallo, Malfoy. What are you doing here?"

Scorpius sniffed, _like a prissy princess_ Lily thought vengefully, and stood, pulling a folded letter from his robes and handing it to her brother. "Sprout sent this to me. It's so we can sort out a schedule for commentating."

Albus grinned. "Brilliant," he said eagerly, happily taking it from this Malfoy boy.

"_Albus_," Lily hissed.

Her brother looked up, surprised as if to see her there. "What?" She looked pointedly at Malfoy then back to him. "Oh, um, Lily, this is Scorpius Malfoy. Malfoy, this is my younger sister, Lily."

"Charmed," Scorpius drawled. Lily longed to punch him.

Lily glared at the two of them. "What are you two doing together anyway?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you? Sprout okayed us commentating on the Quidditch matches this year!" he explained grinning widely. "We get to switch on and off, and we're supposed to set up a schedule. Which, Malfoy, any match in particular you really want to commentate on?"

"My own house's of course, but I was thinking I should take the Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw one and you can take the Gryffindor versus Slytherin. I wouldn't be unbiased enough for Sprout anyway." It was odd, but when he spoke, Lily couldn't help but notice he seemed to lighten up. She couldn't decide if it was because it was Quidditch they were talking about or if it was because they might be friends and she had just never known. Either way, Lily felt decidedly left out.

"Perfect then—so, I take all Gryffindor matches, you take the Slytherin then?"

"Of course."

"All right, I'll fill this out then. Good talking to you, Malfoy," Albus grinned, offering his hand. Scorpius actually smiled lightly before shaking his hand then breezing out the compartment. Lily was tempted to hex him just to make sure he'd never come back. "What's wrong, Lils? You look like you're going to mangle something."

Lily glared at her brother. "Why do you have to get along with such nasty boy?"

Albus blinked slowly. "…what are you—oh," he grinned and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry, I won't ignore you or anything. I can't replace my favorite little sister, right?"

"I'm your only little sister," she groused. "And that's not the problem! He's such a…"

"A what?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"He's a right bastard is what he is!"

"Woh, woh, woh, there, don't let Rose catch you talking like that or she'll write to mum about you," he shushed her. "Besides, what's wrong with Malfoy? I know James don't like him on account that Uncle Ron has this thing against his dad and all, but Scorpius isn't that bad a guy."

She shook angrily. "I hope I never see that guy again!"

Albus smiled at her. "If you got to know him, you'd see he's not so bad. Look, I gotta go—Gareth Barr and Justin Cresswell have a game of Exploding Snap waiting for me. Wake Hugo up, will you? We're going to be there soon."

At once crushed by his brushing her off but buoyed by the thought they would be at Hogwarts soon, Lily let him leave without a word. She huffed and kicked the bottom of Hugo's shoe harder than necessary.

"Ah, wuh…?" Hugo jerked awake, blinking sleepily. "Wuh you want?"

"Wake up and get dressed," she ordered him briskly before going to wait outside the compartment as he got changed. As she leaned against the door, Lily couldn't help but glare at her feet. She had been so excited to go to Hogwarts, but now thinking that there would be people like Scorpius Malfoy, she was feeling a little grim. As she went back in when Hugo finished, Lily resolved to never think of the loathsome Malfoy heir again.

"What's wrong with you?" Hugo asked, fighting with his tie.

Lily swatted his hands away and tied it for him. "Nothing. You want some sweets?"

He grinned and let the subject drop in favor of candy.

Lily, in spite of her early decision to not think of Scorpius at all, took great delight in imagining that each pale colored Bertie Bott's bean was Scorpius's head and chewing them a bit more violently than called for.

Years later, when Lily would look back at her first meeting with Scorpius, she would grin and say it was Love at First Sight.


	4. Dispute

Mostly AU from the others.

**Prompt: "Dispute"**

* * *

In the two years since they had started dating, Lily had never quite figured out why Scorpius enjoyed baiting her so much. He often made some rather unnecessary, in her opinion, comments about a variety of things: how she dressed (whether it was fashionable, inappropriate, or how it clashed with her hair), how her hair looked (how it was frizzy before it rained or limp by the time she went to bed), how she ate porridge (like it was going to splatter everywhere if she didn't eat it carefully). For many small things, he had to say _something_ to get a rise out of her—which it never failed to. She was the daughter of Ginny Potter, and she wasn't going to take any sort of mistreatment sitting down.

Most times when he said something, she fired a retort back. Sometimes if the retort was particularly amusing, Scorpius would laugh; other times he would keep the commentary rolling until she either found a way to shut him up or she managed a quip that would prompt an amused smile. Generally, she took this as a quirk of his and let it pass.

Today, however, she stormed straight into her dormitory and flopped onto her bed, pull the hangings shut lest one of her roommates might find her and ask her why she was crying. Which she most certainly was _not_ because that would mean that Scorpius had gotten under her skin today, which would mean he was in fact human and not an insect not worth her time like she had shouted at him in the library no less. Madame Pince would have thrown her out if it weren't for the fact she was already busy storming out. Scorpius had tried to catch up with her but she managed to slip into a shortcut, and even if he wanted to talk to her now, she was safely hidden into her in the Hufflepuff Cellar and he couldn't follow even he tried.

She was just about finished _not_ crying when she heard a gentle knock at the door. Confused that someone had actually bothered to knock, she pulled the curtains back as she saw Iris Medici poke her head into the room.

"May I come in?" she asked. Lily sat up and nodded; her eldest brother's girlfriend slipped in and then let herself plop unceremoniously on the bed across from Lily's. "I saw you race in here and I was a bit worried. Did something happen?"

The innocent question brought back the hurtful remark that that…_that_…_brat_ had said and she felt the sting of tears prick her eyes. Blinking rapidly to stall the tears, she sat up and tied one of the curtains back as she composed herself. When she finally trusted herself to speak without breaking down, she turned back to well-meaning seventh year. "Just had a spat, that's all."

Iris cocked her head to the side much like a curious puppy. "With one of your friends?"

"With…with Scorpius," she spat in distaste.

"Ah." Iris paused. "Was it a bad spat?"

Suddenly, she couldn't hold it back and she stood up. "I can't believe I ever saw anything in him," she yelled. "He's a pig headed…egotistical…insufferable…pig!"

Iris sportingly didn't note the redundancy of that statement. "You know, I said the same thing about James quite a lot."

Anger derailed for a moment, Lily couldn't help but stare. "But…that's just _James_."

Iris shrugged. "Yes, well, Scorpius sounds an awful lot like him at times."

Lily sniffed and fell back on her mattress. "_James_ doesn't tell me that I look like a colorblind fashion reject."

"Well, he _did_ tell me that my ideas were so 'simple' and 'charming' once."

Lily stared with wide eyes. "He _didn't,"_ she denied then paused. "And you kept dating him?"

"Well, he didn't mean what it sounded like but I did give him hell for that one," Iris giggled.

"I would have walloped him around the head," Lily suggested but then paused and gazed at her knee socks. Her mother had made them for Christmas, and while her mother had inherited her grandmother's talent for cooking, she had most certainly not gotten the knitting ability. Still she liked the gold and brown knee socks, no matter what Scorpius said.

"You know, our house's colors just aren't quite as flashy as the others," Iris sighed, catching on to the problem of the socks.

"That _doesn't_ mean he had to say I was a reject."

"Well, no, but do you really think he meant it like that?"

Lily gave her a queer look. "How _else_ was I supposed to take it?"

"He was commenting on the socks, right? While it isn't the best ways to go about it, he probably thought that it made sense."

Lily glared at her suspiciously. "And how are you so sure?"

Iris shrugged. "He's a _boy;_ of course he would say something like that. Besides, you're the one who's been dating him since two years ago," she raised a brow at her. "What do _you_ think he really meant?"

Lily tapped the toes of her trainers together. "…well, at the moment I think he's the biggest git in world…but he probably didn't think I'd storm out of the library after blowing up at him."

Iris pulled a face at her. "In the _library_? Girl, are you trying to get the whole school buzzing? God, you better go find him and save him before your brother and cousins get him. You could beat him up yourself then," she added with a bright smile.

Lily raised her brows at her but sighed a bit. "Well…I could do with giving him another piece of my mind…"

Iris grinned. "Thatta girl. Give him hell."

Reenergized by their talk, Lily hopped up off her bed and followed Iris out. She bade her farewell then headed out through the Common Room's portal and began her search to find Scorpius. Although she doubted he was still there, she peeked into the library before fleeing as Madame Pince turned to glare at her. Noting that he didn't appear to be there, or at least not hiding amongst the bookshelves, she began to check any place she could think of. She was half convinced that she should find Albus and borrow the Marauder's Map when she looked out a window to see a pale head of platinum blond in the courtyard below. Gambling that it might be him, not many people had the shade of blond hair really, she hurried down in time to nearly run into him as he tried to walk in.

At first they had awkwardly stumbled back and then fumbled to say something. Finally, he cleared his throat and spoke. "Fancy a walk on the grounds?" he asked tightly, conscious to the many stares they were getting. She nodded and he led them out of the courtyard.

They walked quietly, neither quite ready to test the waters after the row from earlier.

"I…" he began. She watched him attentively but he seemed to lose his courage and turned his face back to the ground. "I didn't mean to…that is, I hadn't meant to…"

"Offend me?"

He flinched. "Upset you. I just…I didn't think that you'd…take it like that…"

"And just how _was_ I supposed to take it?" she retorted waspishly. "You told me I was a colorblind fashion reject."

"I didn't say you were a fashion reject," he insisted.

"You _insinuated_ it."

He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "girls" before clearing his throat. "I just…" He paused and looked at her. "There's no way I'm getting out of this one without a lump, is there?"

She gave him a chilly look. "Try apologizing. It works sometimes, you know."

He sighed. "I'm sorry I upset you."

"And?"

He looked at her like he was wondering what more she wanted from him. "…and for insulting your socks?"

"Don't sound very sure," she pointed out.

"Hey, I'm _trying_ here!" he huffed, kicking a stone, sending it skipping over the ground.

Lily didn't say anything in reply and they fell back into a strained silence. Finally, she spoke. "I forgive you."

He looked at her expectantly. "And?"

She frowned at him. "You were the one who insulted me."

"You were the one that insinuated that my mother produced me with a _pig_, need I remind you."

She winced. "I did?"

"Among other things. In front of the whole library. I'm going to have to hide from your family for weeks before I get clobbered, you know."

"Well, I am sorry about that," she giggled. "Call it even and forget the whole thing ever happened?"she offered, raising her hand to shake on it.

He smirked and took hold of her hand, pressing a kiss onto her knuckles, prompting a dark blush. He looked up at her sending shivers down her back before he straightened. "Shall we go get a snack?" he suggested.

She smiled and tightened the grip on his hand. "I think triple fudge biscuits sound good."

"Death by chocolate it is," he grinned. They walked in amiable silence until the front entrance to the school.

When they did reach the doors, Albus, Hugo, and Rose stormed out glaring daggers at him when they saw him. "Scorpius! I've got a bone to pick with you," Albus called as they stalked over.

"_We've_ got a bone to pick with you," Rose corrected him.

Scorpius's eyes went uncharacteristically wide and Lily giggled at him before coming to his rescue.


	5. Youth

**Prompt: "Youth"**

* * *

For Harry and Ginny Potter's children, their father was a loving if somewhat distant man. It wasn't that he held himself aloof from them; fact was he spent plenty of his free time with them. He never missed a single birthday, recital, Quidditch match, or holiday with them. But still when their father would pause or when they would stumble upon him looking far off even in the most crowded and rowdy of scenes, it felt to them like he was nearly a ghost. As a child, Lily would have reoccurring nightmares where her father would simply pause in the middle of something, get that look in his eyes, and then fade away. After one of these dreams, Harry would often find his daughter staring at him from the side of the bed. He wasn't sure why his daughter insisted on these midnight checks but more often than not he scooped her up and let her sleep between him and Ginny.

So, quite often, her and her brothers went out of their way to attract his attention when his mind floated off. Harry never seemed to really mind, so they kept on doing it. Anything was better than watching their father get that look in his eyes.

This is precisely what happened one afternoon not too long after Albus and James went to school, when Lily found her father sitting in the study, blankly gazing at the floral wallpaper Ginny had fought onto the wall last spring. She quickly marched in and prodded his arm.

He started and glanced around but she was below his line of vision. "Wuh—oh, hello, Lily," he smiled at her, relaxing again. "Do you need something?"

_I need you to stop looking like that_, she thought grimly to herself. With her brothers, now both away at Hogwarts, she decided it was up to her to keep her father back in the present. She held up a carved item in her hands, showing it to him. "Is this yours, daddy?"

"Where on Earth did you find that?" Harry laughed and plucked the wooden flute.

"I found it when I was helping mummy clean the attic," she explained before she gave him a quizzical look. "Where did you get it then?"

"Oh, Hagrid made it for me for a Christmas present," Harry answered, admiring the flute with a wistful smile on his face.

Lily frowned. "Oh." Hagrid never sent them such loving made gifts—he sent candies, cakes, cards. But the flute was an obvious labor of love; looking at it made Lily the tiniest stings of jealousy, but then, seeing it had chased away her father's mood, so she supposed she could be grateful enough. "Do you know how to play it?"

"Well, Hagrid showed me a tune or two—I'm not very good at it though."

She climbed up on his lap. "I want to hear you play—please, daddy," she tried, pouting just a little to his amusement.

He grinned and helped her settle comfortably on his legs. "Alright, but don't complain when you hear it though."

He wasn't as bad as he made out, she found. Either that or he knew the tune very well—there were a few rough patches as he hit the wrong note or lost the rhythm. This didn't mean that Lily wasn't utterly charmed by her father's playing though. By the time he finished, she started to clap excitedly making him grin. "That was really good, daddy."

"Want to give it a go?" he asked, handing it to her. She took it eagerly and blew a loud, sharp note. Harry grimaced and quickly began to tutor her on how to play it better. In a little while, she was playing the tune from he had before, even if it wasn't nearly as good as his slipshod attempt though. "Lovely," he said as he kissed her forehead. "Hmm, you know, I just realized something."

"What?" she asked, looking curiously at him.

"Well, we got your brothers plenty of presents for school, but we didn't get you much did we?"

She fiddled with the flute. "Mummy said I'd get stuff like that when I go to Hogwarts," she explained.

He smiled at her and ran a hand over her hair. "That's still not very fun for you though, is it?" She shook her head and he squeezed her shoulder. "How about you get this then?"

"What?"she asked, grinning excitedly. "I can keep it?"

"Sounds fair to me—besides, I think you'll get more use out of it than I ever did," he answered.

She gave him a tight hug and after a moment she began to play a few notes on the flute again, practicing trying to get a real song out of the instrument. She paused to see her father, his head lulling slightly to the side. "Daddy?"

"Erm…oh, yes?" he started, blinking sleepily at her.

"Do you really think Uncle Ron meant what he said earlier?"

Harry blinked. "What did Ron say?"

"What he said about Granddad never forgiving Rose if she married a pureblood?"

He frowned. "No, I don't think your Granddad would be that upset—although, from the sound of Albus' letters, Rose and James are already getting in trouble with Malfoy's son as is. …Remind me to owl your brother about picking on others, will you?"

She nodded seriously. "Daddy?"

"Yes, pumpkin?"

She grimaced at the nickname—being a redhead had made her sensitive to such comments, especially since some of the meaner children in the neighborhood called her similar things. "Would you get mad if _I_ married him then?"

Harry was quiet for a long time, staring confusedly at his daughter. "I…no, I would never be mad—as long as your happy, Lily, that's what matters," he smiled finally, pleased with his answer.

She grinned, sat up a bit to kiss his cheek, and then slid down off his lap. "Thanks, daddy. Mummy should be ready for lunch by now."

"Is that what you came in here for?" he asked, standing up.

"No," she answered, remembering that distant look in his eyes when she walked in. She wandered out of the room, leaving her father to smile bemusedly at her.

"Kids," he chuckled to himself then paused. "Wait, Lily, what did you mean if you married 'him'? Lil—Lily, you're not planning any—Lily, I'm talking to you!"

Lily giggled as she took the stairs two at a time.


	6. Notify

Lily is in her fourth year in this chapter while Albus and Scorpius are both in their sixth year. It's a bit vague in this one shot.

**Prompt: "Notify"**

* * *

The whole thing started when Wren Frost walked over to the Hufflepuff table to hand Lily Potter a letter. "Miss Lily," she began, holding the slender envelope out to her, "can I ask a favor of you?"

Lily twitched but tried to be patient with the Slytherin student. "You really don't have to keep calling me 'Miss' all the time, Wren."

Wren's lips tugged up just the tiniest bit which Lily took to mean she was amused. "All the same, can I ask a favor?"

"Alright, what do you need?" she asked, scooting over to allow her friend to sit down.

"Can you give this to your brother?" she asked, offering her the envelope.

Lily's eyebrows went up. "You want me to give him a letter?" She accepted the envelope anyway. "Is it a love letter or—oh, wait, which brother do you mean?"

"Albus. And I don't know what it is—one of the fifth year girls wanted me to ask you to give it to him."

Lily couldn't help but stare. "One of the fifth years? Which one?"

"Menthe Greengrass. She's Daphne Greengrass' daughter from her first marriage, but after she divorced, she and her daughter returned to her maiden name. She's also the cousin of Scorpius Malfoy, since his mother, Astoria, is Daphne's younger sister. She is also related to-" Wren prattled off, ticking off each point on her fingers.

"Wren," Lily interrupted. "Um, were you studying _Dynasties of Pureblood Families_ again?"

Wren blinked. "Of course."

"It, ah, shows," Lily coughed before examining the envelope again. "I wonder what she'd want to tell Al…"

Wren shrugged.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt, right?" Lily smiled brightly. "Alright, tell her I'll do it."

When Lily handed her brother the letter, he looked just as confused as she had. "What would Menthe Greengrass want with me?" he asked, brow furrowed as he opened the letter. Lily waited quietly as he skimmed the letter; she decided that it couldn't have been a love letter, since he wasn't blushing in the least when finally finished reading it.

"What'd she want?"

"Huh?" he asked, looking at her in surprise. Obviously, he'd forgotten she was there; she pouted. "Oh, she was saying thanks—she's in my Potions class and we got partnered last week. Funny, she waited so long to say—and in a letter at that."

"I thought she was a fifth year student."

"She is, she's just really good at potions—they put her into the next higher class in her first year, I think."

She watched as he tapped the letter against his chin, absently musing about the mystery. "Are you going to write her back?"

"Mmm?"

"Are you. Going to. Write. Her back?" she asked, punctuating her question with pauses.

He blinked. "Oh, I suppose I should—if I write one later will you give it to her?"

Lily frowned. "Why can't you just give it to her?"

"Not as much fun—besides, she's kinda shy. I'd embarrass her too much, just waltzing up and handing her a letter. How 'bout it?"

Lily sighed. "Oh, alright—hurry and write it then. I'll give it to Wren and she can give it to her."

And so it began, Lily found herself trafficking letters back and forth from her brother and Menthe. It kept up for several weeks, the two of them writing a reply every other day. The constant run around would have worn Lily's patience thin, if it weren't for the fact that she had managed to weasel out of her brother that the letters weren't just any notes—apparently, somewhere down the line, they'd become _love letters._ Then the whole affair was just too amusing, (and dare she say _romantic?),_ to stop.

There was one small problem though—one day, Lily had a letter from Albus but when Lily walked into the Great Hall, she found Wren missing. She walked over to the Slytherin table to ask Wren's roommates about her friend. She finally dragged the truth from the reluctant girls—Wren had the flu and was holed up in the Hospital Wing.

She forgot all about Albus, Menthe, and even breakfast as she ran to the Hospital Wing to check on her friend. Madame Pompfrey, however, refused to let her get too close to her contagious friend. After a bit of talking, Lily had to hurry to her first class. About a half hour into the history lesson, she remembered the letter. She forgot to pay any attention to Professor Binns as she tried to think of what to do with the letter.

_It'll take a few days for Wren to get better…what do I do with it until then?_ She could try and walk up to Menthe and give it her later, she supposed but then she wasn't precisely sure who Menthe was. Maybe she could ask one of the Slytherins to point her out…or maybe even give her the letter.

That was when one of Lily's more spectacularly foolish ideas hit.

Later that night at dinner, Lily stood by the door and waited as students filed into the Great Hall until she saw the person she had been looking for finally show up. Before he had a chance to step into the Hall, Lily firmly planted herself in the path of Scorpius Malfoy.

The pale haired Slytherin looked down at her in confusion. "What do you want…?"

"Lily. Lily Potter," she provided.

His snorted disdainfully. "I should have known. Alright, what is it?"

"Your cousin is Menthe Greengrass, right?"

Now he frowned warily. "Yes…?"

She presented him the letter. "This letter is for her; could you point her out to me?"

"Why?"

Patiently, she raised her brows at him. "So I can give it to her, of course."

He glared at her and her suspiciously bland tone. "Like I would trust a Potter giving my cousin anything—give it here. What is it anyway?"

"Just a letter," she answered and held it up for him to look at. Like she was _actually_ going to hand it over. After all the grief he gave her brothers, she didn't trust him that much. (Or maybe it was just James…her eldest brother had a specialty for getting under people's skin.) "Now, where is she—hey, give that back!"

He snatched the letter from her, flipping it over in his hands above his head so she couldn't reach it. "I don't _see_ anything wrong with it…" he glanced imperiously back down at her. "That doesn't mean that there isn't though."

"Hey, c'mon, she's expecting that," she insisted. Kicking him in the shins or hexing him sounded promising, but then if she got caught, her house could lose their points. She tried to think of something to do to get the letter back.

"She is, huh?" He looked at the letter considering it, and then walked quickly into the Great Hall, letter still held aloft in the air. Lily blanched and took off after him—thankfully, none of her brothers or her older cousins were there yet, although she had to wave to Hugo to sit back down when he spotted her. She tried to look calm as she hurried after the Malfoy heir as he marched over to his house's table, straight up to whom she presumed was Menthe herself. Menthe was a slim, pretty thing with dark hair and wide blue eyes—wide, Lily guessed, because her older cousin and her boyfriend's younger sister walked up to her. "Menthe, letter for you."

"Ah, thank you, Scorpius," she answered in a quiet voice.

Scorpius nodded and turned around only to blink down at Lily as if surprised she had followed. "Now, what?"

She looked up at him at a loss. "I, uh…thank you?"

"Whatever," he answered dismissively then walked around her to join some boys she presumed to be his friends.

She quickly left to join her own table, rather than hover next to the shy Menthe. She waved to her brothers as they came in but hurried over to her table, ignoring their invitation to her to join them. Throughout dinner, she couldn't help but glance up at Scorpius and Menthe every now and then.

The next day, as she tried to enter the Great Hall, she was surprised to find Scorpius waiting for her at the door, much like she had for him the night before. He presented her a letter. "From Menthe—just what are you two writing to each other for?" he asked so quickly she had to blink at him.

She reached for the letter but he jerked it away from her. "It's private," she answered, relying on a half-truth; Menthe may not have been writing to _her_, but what she wrote to her brother was private (no matter how much she wanted to peek at the letters). "Give it to me."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and tossed it to her before turning and entering the Great Hall. She glared after him and entered behind him.

Over the next few days, a new ritual formed—whenever Lily tried to hand Menthe the letters directly, Scorpius appeared from nowhere to take them from her and give it to his cousin himself; whenever Menthe finished a letter, Scorpius delivered the letter himself. Even when Wren returned from being ill, Scorpius kept a constant vigil for the letters. Lily would have found it rather annoying if it weren't the fact she couldn't help but giggle at his over-protectiveness to his cousin. It reminded her of James overprotective nature to her, Albus, and their cousins. That and she found herself looking forward to talking to Scorpius himself—he actually began to chat with her in between asking questions about what the letters were about.

It was getting near to summer when Lily walked up with a letter to him, having giving up trying to avoid him. "Here," she said, handing him the note.

He looked up at her curiously for a moment before accepting it; it wasn't breakfast or dinner, like it was when she usually gave him the letters. "Fine—I'll give it to Menthe in a bit then," he replied distractedly—she had interrupted him in the middle of an Arithmancy problem.

"It isn't for Menthe," she explained tightly.

He blinked and looked up at her. "What?"

"It's for you," she answered then turned on her heel and left.

He watched her blankly as she marched off before tearing the envelope open. He was disappointed to see only a small scrap of parchment inside, he had half hoped she was going to explain just what it was she had been writing to his cousin for. Brushing aside his disappointment, he held the paper up and read. Then stared.

_My brother's dating your cousin._

_--Lily_

_P.S.—I like you._

He flipped the paper over, hoping that maybe there was some sort of explanation.

_Yes, I do mean __like__ in __that__ way._

Flabbergasted, he stood up, accidently dumping his books and parchment to the ground. He hastily swept his mess up into his book bag and took off after her. He rushed to catch up with her and finally managed to after she entered the library. She looked expectantly at him with the faintest dusting of a blush across her freckled cheeks as he sat across from her at her table. He looked dumbfound for a moment before opening his mouth, but then abruptly closed it and stared. Then, without a word, he pulled open his bag and began to rummage around in it before he tore of a piece of his parchment from his homework, (he'd have to start over now), and jotted down a note before he shoved it to her.

She read it nervously.

_I like you back._

_But don't you dare tell anyone._

She glanced up at him.

"_Especially_ your brothers," he warned her.

She smiled.


	7. Rough

And now, the rating just shot way up. Yeah, sorry for not mentioning that.

Warning: Contains material not appropriate for some readers.

**Prompt: "Rough"**

* * *

The morning of Lily's twenty first birthday started out at her best birthday up to that point; beating out her tenth birthday when her father got her her first real racing broom, her fifteenth birthday when she got to watch Rose get so trashed she started to strip tease on the table before a mortified Ron practically tackled his daughter down, or even her seventeenth when she and Scorpius snuck away from the festivities long enough to have sex in the upstairs cupboard, giggling like a pair of idiots. Well, in a way her twenty first birthday was similar to her seventeenth in that regard (the sex was better at least)—that was until the kitchen table loudly snapped beneath them, making them both fall. She and Scorpius actually had a good laugh about it for a second as he stood up and offered her a hand.

And then James Apparated in, singing Happy Birthday, and then going dead silent as he saw the pair of them, very naked, amongst the ruins of their table. For a moment, Lily imagined that he had a full body bind placed on him since he was scarcely breathing; the idea was shattered quickly when he let out an incoherent roar and began to search his pockets. "WHERE IS MY WAND?!" he shouted and then "GET THE BLOODY HELL OF MY SISTER, YOU FOUL, FERRETY LITTLE SOD BEFORE I BLAST YOU OFF HER!"

Lily, like any good girlfriend, jumped up to block any hexes sent at Scorpius who was still stood dumbfounded and gaping at James. James let out a yelp of horror and covered his eyes, shouting loudly for her to put some clothes on. "Not until you control yourself," she snapped, blushing darkly, before turning to look back at Scorpius.

Never the idiot but cowardly all the same, Scorpius had wisely fled to their bedroom—mostly likely to grab a pair of pants and his wand. She hoped he remembered to grab hers as well—wand that is, but some clothes would have been lovely too.

"Lily, cover up and get out of the way—I'm going to kill that bastard if it's the last thing I do," he snarled, but the threatening image was ruined by him cowering behind his arms, trying to block out the sight of her bare body.

"James will you just bugger off? I'm not letting you kill my boyfriend," she retorted. She felt a nudge against her shoulder, and saw that Scorpius was sheepishly offering her a robe. She was a bit disappointed to see that he had not grabbed her wand as well as his own, but presently he was busy, holding his wand up defensively. She quickly put on the robe, and tied the sash as she gestured to him to hide behind the living room wall. "James, for heaven's sake, couldn't you have sent me a message or something before dropping in like that?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise—besides, how was I to know you and that—that bastard where in here, going at it hard enough to break the table? …are you dressed yet?"

Lily blushed, but huffed all the same. "Yes, I'm dressed, now will you get out of here so I can try and fix our table now?"

"Fine, but I want you to know that this will take years of therapy to overcome this horror I've seen here," he wailed, more than a touch melodramatically.

Lily bit her lip. "Send Scorpius the bill then."

"Hey!" he cried from behind the wall. The Potter siblings ignored him.

James peeked a little, but kept his arms up protectively all the same. "Can't you do it in bed like normal people?"

Lily blushed darker, remembering some of her and Scorpius more unusual places they fucked in. "Oh, just go. I'll see you at the party."

"Years of therapy, Lily, years," he reminded her in a overly serious tone and Disapparated out of their flat.

Scorpius and Lily but heaved a great sign of relief before Lily turned to give her boyfriend a questioning look. "Well that was…different," he said finally.

Lily groaned, but then started to laugh at the absurdity of her morning. Exhausted, she leaned against his shoulder and sighed. "God, what a way to start my birthday."

"Well, if you like, we can go back to bed and I'll try and make it up to you," he suggested with the self sacrificing tone of a true martyr.

Lily smacked his shoulder playfully.


	8. Unbelievable

Sequel to "Stranger".

**Prompt: "Unbelievable"**

* * *

Never before had Lily been so glad to see Hagrid in all her life—which was quite a feat since she always enjoyed it when Hagrid visited. But the minute she staggered off the train, she heard his bellow through the rain and dragged Hugo and Fred over with a grin. "Hagrid!" she called to him, waving excitedly. "Do we get to go on the boats now?"

"Boats?" asked one of the other first years who obviously hadn't known about that bit.

Hagrid laughed and she smiled because at least that meant he wasn't mad at her for ruining the surprise. He waved them closer and gave Lily a tight hug—which left her back aching, so she leaned upon Hugo for awhile as Hagrid rounded up all the first years. "First years! Are we all here? Right then, let's get going."

Lily squeezed Hugo's arm in excitement and the three of them grinned wildly at each other as they grabbed their own boat. In a moment they were off, cruising right across the lake, and they chattered excitedly. "Dad said we have to fight a troll to get in," Fred grinned wickedly, and cracked his knuckles.

Lily giggled while Hugo snapped at him. "We do not! Mum and Rose both told me they that the Sorting Hat decides where you go."

"Ah, but that's not half as fun," Fred laughed, swinging his legs at them. Lily shrieked in delight and began to kick back while Hugo inched away from their flailing legs.

"Guys, we're going flip over if you don't stop," Hugo hissed as the boat rocked side to side.

"Hugo, help me win!" Lily giggled and after a moment he grinned and joined in.

"Will you lot _stop_ that!" Hagrid shouted at them, sounding faint but worried all the same. They sighed, but settled for splashing water at each other and giggling madly until they reached the opposite shore. "Honestly, you three," Hagrid huffed, trying to seem stern. "You're more wound up then Mrs. Norris when she finds where Filch hides her catnip."

Abashed, more or less, they fell in line quietly as he led them up to the school. Uncle Neville met the first years at the door, greeting Hagrid warmly and smiling at them when they waved excitedly. "Thanks, Hagrid, I'll manage them from here."

"Good luck—you got two Weasleys and a Potter in this group and they're set on horsing around," Hagrid shook his head at them.

Neville hid his smile by coughing into his fist. "Well, I'll keep a close eye on them. I'll see you in the Great Hall in a bit." Hagrid nodded and waved to them before he turned and left. Neville turned and fixed a serious eye on all of them, making the anxious first years pause for a second before he smiled warmly at them. "Welcome to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Professor Longbottom, Head of Gryffindor House. You'll all be in my Herbology class, so I want you to know right now that if you have any questions or need someone to talk to, I always make time to help you. Now, first I'm going to explain what will happen to you next, then we're going to head into the Great Hall where you will be sorted and can have dinner. Now, any questions before I begin?"

A boy raised his hand and waved around anxiously.

Neville nodded to him. "Yes?"

"What's this about having to fight a troll?" he asked, eyes wide and face paled. Fred looked over at Lily and grinned like a maniac.

Neville smiled. "There will be no troll fighting, I can assure you." The boy relaxed a bit, but Fred, Lily, and Hugo giggled to each other nonetheless. "Alright, if that's all I going to start explaining—here at Hogwarts, our students are split up into four houses—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own dormitories and common rooms where you will get better acquainted with your fellow housemates. You will attend classes with others in your house, you will eat at your house tables, and you can even join your house's Quidditch team in your second year. Your house will become like a family for most of you."

Several of the students began to chatter excitedly to one another as he paused. Lily and Hugo shared a look before she squeezed his hand and they both turned back to Neville.

"Now, you will all be sorted into your houses by the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat will peer into your minds and hearts, find those qualities that define you, and place you into the house most appropriate for you. There is no changing of houses once it decides, but if your unsure where you belong, don't worry—the Sorting Hat hasn't been wrong yet."

"Here we go," Fred whispered, practically bouncing in excitement. She grinned and grabbed a hold of his hand.

"Now then," Neville looked at them all, "If there are no questions, we'll head on in and get started." No one spoke so he nodded and then gestured for them to follow as he led them to the Great Hall.

Lily couldn't contain the startled gasp that tore from her throat as she looked in. The first thing she saw was the Gryffindor table, then the others, and then the candles hovering above them. She wondered faintly how silly she must look with her eyes so wide as she looked up at the cloudy ceiling. At first, she nearly forgot to look for her brothers but then Hugo whispered "There's Rose!" into her ear and she remembered to look around. She quickly found the pair of them, sitting together and grinning at her. She waved and nearly stumbled into the person in front of her as he came to as stop.

In front of them, Neville walked up to a stool where at very tattered and charred wizard's hat sat. Lily nearly clapped in her excitement and clutched at Hugo and Fred. Suddenly the brim of the Hat tore open and began to sing. When it was finished, Lily let go of Hugo and Fred to clap eagerly at it like the rest of the hall, then shifted nervously as Neville began to call off names.

"Bennett, Kevin," he began.

A ruddy face, dark haired boy hurried up and hopped up on the stool. The Hat barely touched his head before it yelled "Ravenclaw". There was a roar of approval from Ravenclaw as Kevin slipped off the stool and nearly jogged over to his table, nervously jumping into the first chair he found open.

"You nervous?" Fred asked.

"Nope," Lily answered.

"I am," Hugo shuddered. "What if it doesn't put me in Gryffindor, like it did Rose?"

"Courage," Lily reminded him.

Michael Darcy became the next Slytherin, followed by Wren Frost, while Joshua Freeling along with Miriam Jones became Gryffindors. Rosa Gomez became another Ravenclaw and Dustin Manchester was a new Hufflepuff student. Finally, Neville called out "Potter, Lily" and Lily looked to her cousins once before she hurried over to the stool and climbed on.

She sat perfectly still as the Sorting Hat fell down around her eyes, blocking the view of the Great Hall. _Mmm, another Potter._

_Hello, _she thought cheerfully.

_You're a confident little thing, aren't you?_ It chuckled.

_All the more reason to put me in Gryffindor._

It actually laughed, echoing throughout her ears. _You have spunk yes, but that's not all that's here. Loyalty…yes, most definitely. Your friends mean a lot to you, don't they?_

_I would do anything for them,_ she answered at once, thinking of grinning Fred and nervous Hugo.

_I see. Well, is there a House in particular you want to be in?_

_I trust you to make the right call,_ she thought, almost smugly.

_Oh, do you? Well, better be_ _"_HUFFLEPUFF_!"_

Lily paused; there was dead silence for a moment but then she realized dazedly that the Hufflepuff table had nearly erupted in cheering as the youngest Potter was to join them. Neville pulled the Sorting Hat from her head, looking bemusedly at her as he helped her off the stool.

"Well, go sit down," he urged, gently pushing her to the Hufflepuff table.

Lily, for her part, staggered over to her table and nearly fell as she tried to sit, prompting quite a few people to reach out and help her into her seat. "Lily, you okay?"

"Huh?" she asked, blinking spastically.

She recognized James's girlfriend, Iris Medici, gazing worriedly at her. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Lily blinked at her. She had all her limbs attached, right? Why wouldn't she be okay? _Oh, maybe that's because you're in _Hufflepuff_, not GRYFFINDOR?_ Lily sat up and nearly whipped her head around to look at the Gryffindor table. Her brothers, along with Dominique, Molly, and Lucy stared at her in shock. Even Rose at the Ravenclaw table was craning her head around to stare at her. Finally, Lily turned back to Iris. "What just happened?"

"You got sorted into Hufflepuff, love," Iris explained, patting Lily's hand. "I'm thinking that this wasn't something you planned to happen."

Lily just stared.

* * *

"You should write home," Albus said before they left the Great Hall, after James had already stormed out. "Mum and Dad are going to want to know what happened anyway."

Lily nodded and watched as most of her family left to go to Gryffindor Tower, someplace she would never visit now. Iris grabbed her shoulders and began to steer her forward, talking softly to her and leading her down towards the Hufflepuff Cellar. Iris pointed out the tunnel to the first year's room and promised to help her in anyway she could. Lily went to bed without a second thought and forgot to write any letter.

The next morning, Albus told Lily that James had already written to their parents—on her behalf, to beg them to somehow convince the headmistress to change Lily to Gryffindor. Lily cringed and hurried over to her house's table. A few days later, Nicodemus, her father's barn owl, flew down in front of her and dropped off a letter before flying over to the Gryffindor table. Lily tore her letter open and skimmed most of the letter until she found _"Your mother and I are very happy for you, sweet heart. It's great that you ended up in Hufflepuff, we're very proud of you"_ and nearly screamed.

She tore off some parchment and sent Isolde later. The note read "_Name one Hufflepuff who did something worth being proud of"._

Her mother sent her an alphabetized list containing names such as "_Hannah Longbottom_", "_Cedric Diggory_", and "_Nymphadora Lupin_". Her father sent along an actual letter, in which Lily could guiltily imagine him speaking in a disappointed tone that was ten times worse than if he had sent a Howler with Nicodemus. Properly chastised and feeling a tad abandoned, Lily spent the next week and a half avoiding her family except for Albus and Hugo. It wasn't like most of them acted like she had betrayed them by being sorted into Hufflepuff, but fact was they didn't know how to broach the subject. Even tactile Rose or kind Molly had trouble talking to her.

One afternoon, in a sudden mood swing of maniac desperation, Lily tried to change the color of her tie with any charm she could think of. She cowered in her corner of the library, searching desperately through the books for any spell. She was so absorbed in her task, she didn't even hear someone tripping over her stacks of books at first.

"What stupid bugger put these—oh, Potter," Scorpius Malfoy sneered. "I should have known." Then he paused and his eyes widened at the tracks her tears made from the dust of the books on her cheeks. "Good lord, Potter, what happened to you?"

At once her thoughts clashed together; fear, shame, disgust, horror, but above all wild desperation. It took all she had to keep from breaking down in front of this sour boy she'd only met once before. "I just wanted it to be _red_," she hiccupped and very nearly broke down crying then and there.

Malfoy looked horrified himself; he bent down, setting his books aside and quickly tried to shush her. "C'mon, now stop that," he tried. "Look, c'mon, where's that Gryffindor courage or whatever you lot call it…"

"I'm in Hufflepuff!" she nearly wailed. His face turned a little pale as she buried her face into her hands.

"Well, no wonder why," he muttered but winced as she began to cry louder. "Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that—now, stop crying. Please—c'mon, Madame Filch will come over here and get us both in trouble if you don't shush." Finally she quieted down and he gently pried her hands away from her face, looking very out of place all the while. "I should get Albus—you're his sister anyway-"

"Don't!" she gasped and clutched at his hands. He blinked and looked down, almost fascinated, at her hands in his. "That'll only make it worse."

He shifted warily. "Well, how much worse could it get? What on earth is wrong with you anyway, Potter?"

For a moment she hesitated and then in a split second decision, she poured her heart out. She told him everything—about being placed in Hufflepuff, about her parents' letters, about James's behavior, about her cousins' behavior. The only thing she skipped was that she was going to have to write to her mother very shortly to ask for her to send a package of napkins and some of her menstrual medication. Scorpius, for his part, listened with a bravely solemn face and hid his mounting unease expertly. By the time she was done explaining, Lily panted out of breath.

Scorpius shifted nervously, taking her silence to mean he should say something. "You know, even if you did change your tie—which you can't, by the way—it still wouldn't change what house you're in."

Lily nearly started crying all over again.

Quickly realizing that perhaps that wasn't the brightest thing to say to this upset girl, Scorpius continued quickly. "I didn't want to be in Slytherin at first," he blurted.

It was Lily's turn for her eyes to go round. "What?"

His face burned and Lily marveled that he could actually show emotion like that in such a…human way. "Shut it. Look, when I was little, because no one let me forget all my father's faults, I came to Hogwarts knowing exactly what he did—so when I got stuck in his house, everyone expected me to be exactly like him." He screwed his face into a grimace. "Especially your brother."

"But…he's your father," Lily tried, too startled to form a real objection.

"And? I told you, I didn't want people to just hear my last name and my house and think I was a miniature version of him," he snapped.

She blinked slowly. "…so…what changed?"

He looked sheepishly at her and shifted again, but never let go of her hands she realized suddenly. "Your…brother, actually."

"Albus?" she asked, gaping.

"Well, yes," he retorted sardonically. "What, you think James and I are secretly friends?"

"But—he never said anything."

At once there was another very human look on his face—mixed relief and bitter disappointment before he conquered his expression once more. "Good—we'd only get in trouble if he blabbed then."

"My parents wouldn't be mad if he-" she paused. "Well, my _father_ I know wouldn't be mad."

"Well, mine would," Scorpius frowned. "But that doesn't matter—just because you didn't end up in the house you thought you wanted doesn't mean you didn't end up in the right house. There, get it now?"

Lily stared at him for a long time before finally releasing his hands to wipe at her face. "This is a weird conversation."

He frowned and stood. "Now, no more crying—if Madame Filch thinks I made you cry, she'll give me a detention—and I don't need another detention so early in the year, got it?"

She blinked at him and tried not to giggle. "'_Another_ detention'?"

His face got a little pink. "Err…first year, your brother—James—and I…well, we tried to duel each other."

Lily's eyes went very wide. "What happened?"

He shifted his weight uneasily. "Professor Patil caught us and chewed us out good—look, are you going to stay sitting there all day, or are you going to get up?"

She smiled slightly and stood up, wobbling a little. "Thanks…Malfoy."

Interestingly, Scorpius's face got a little pinker. "Right," he said suddenly and began to march off, snatching his books up quickly. Before he reached the path between the bookcases, he turned back to her. "Potter, this conversation? Never happened. Understand?"

She nodded briefly. "Crystal."

He nodded back to her and vanished quickly, leaving her standing there amongst a few stacks of books with a bemused expression on her face. _Who would have guessed that Malfoy could like a normal person for once?_ She thought, a smile twitching the corners of her mouth up as she bent to collect her books to put back on the shelves.

After that, Harry smiled gently as he read a much more cheerful letter from his daughter than he had recently gotten. _At least,_ he thought, handing the letter to Ginny, _she's seems to have made a friend there to help her._


	9. Phenomenon

Sequel to the "Offering" prompt. Takes place some time during Scorpius's seventh year and Lily's fifth.

**Prompt: "Phenomenon"**

* * *

As a Malfoy, Scorpius liked to think, or at least _pretend_, to be above many things other boys his age did. Playing pranks like that insufferable James Potter, for one, came to mind. And indeed, in quite a few cases he was—he never had a detention, which his mother loved to boast about, he never slouched off on his homework, and above all, girls failed to have a great effect on him (not that _boys_ did either!). Maybe it was because he grew up with a female cousin nearly attached to his hip or that his parents' friends had many daughters that he was forced to play with. When it came to dating, he could waltz up to a girl, cool as could be and ask them out, or in some cases shoot them down effortlessly. He called it a gift.

There was however one insanely embarrassing thing that even Scorpius couldn't get away from—his own brain and its cruel tricks. Otherwise called wet dreams.

He blamed the Greengrass blood for it. (Until he remembered that that would mean his mother…well, after thinking that disturbing little mental image, Scorpius had had nightmares for a week.) But no matter where the disconcerting trait came from, truth was there was no way to avoid such dreams. He took up putting silencing charms on his bed curtains each night after one very close call that nearly woke up the rest of his roommates. He didn't dare go ask Madame Pompfrey for a dreamless sleeping potion for the fear she'd actually get the truth out of him.

Tonight just happened to be one of those unfortunate nights—he could tell the instant he started dreaming. The dreams didn't start off the same way but the looks in the woman's eyes—no doubt it was a woman, not one of his fellow classmate _girls_—was all the same. It bespoke of hunger and it never failed to make him smirk. It was rarely the same person twice and he never recognized her but each time, the same lustful look was in her eyes before she lay beneath him, her hands everywhere and that burning look. He could never get past that _look_.

Tonight was different however; something was off about it. He couldn't put a name to this new feeling that he saw in this one's eyes but for once he felt the same burning want. This woman ran her fingers through his hair but it was she who was smirking. '_Look at the pretty prey I caught' _her expression said, even as she pressed her lips to his throat. Their clothes disappeared in the way clothes always seem to vanish in dreams and he realized she had him pinned on a bed.

He could barely string two thoughts together as she began to ride him. Not that thinking was high on his list of priorities at that moment; her fire, (hers? His? Their fire?), was consuming him alive and all he could see was that smirk on her face as she made him pant. No matter how he touched or moved, she was resolute in her pride. _I want to make you __**beg**_, he whispered to her.

_You'll have to catch me first,_ she answered.

He blinked, and realized she had freckles just before he climaxed.

Scorpius shot up so fast in bed he nearly gave himself whiplash. He panted harshly and was glad he remembered the silencing charms he'd put up. For a moment, he let himself try and catch a breath before he grabbed the box of tissues and his wand from his night table to try and clean himself up.

_Freckles. That's a new one,_ he thought with a thick blush as he cleaned up. Then again everything about the dream was different than usual—the woman, that look in her eyes, her smirk, her looks, and then she had spoken to him. None of the other dream women had spoken before, none of them really had any personality either. _That was…different_, he decided. He wondered what brought the change on when he remembered something.

Frowning, he reached under his pillow and drew out a folded yellow handkerchief with the Hufflepuff badger emblazoned on it. _L.L.P._ was stitched on in curvy, connecting letters near the corner of the folded fabric. He had found it early in the day when he had been rummaging through his trunk looking for a pair of socks. He had stuffed it into his pocket quickly before the other Slytherin boys could ask what he was doing with a Hufflepuff handkerchief of all things; later on, he had hid the handkerchief under his pillow and then forgotten about it.

"_You can keep it. Grandmum Weasley will just make me another. Merry Christmas."_ He recalled the words Lily Potter had said to him that day, nearly four years ago; he'd been rather unhappy and she'd managed to catch not only acting like a moody whiner, she'd also caught him with a bogey hanging from his nose of all things. He'd nearly died of embarrassment on the spot—to be caught by a Potter…under those circumstances…it was nearly too much.

He gazed down at the handkerchief. The youngest Potter didn't really feature into most gossip, she seemed to fly under everyone's radar. Not that her brothers helped matters much—James, while he had been at school, was always up to something, and Albus just seemed to find himself in trouble's way without much trying on his own part. Lily Potter still had the same straight red hair and freckles she'd had at eleven if he remembered right, but she had grown tall and slender unlike her more curvaceous cousins.

_Freckles…_ he thought dazedly, not concentrating on anything but then he blinked.

_You'll have to catch me first,_ _she answered._

…_all he could see was that smirk on her face as she made him pant…_

_Her mouth quirked up. "You have a bogey hanging from your nose."_

Scorpius looked at the handkerchief with a dawning sense of utter horror on his face.

Lily Potter had freckles and red hair. The dream woman had freckles for sure and he strained to recall what hair color she had had.

It was a good thing he put those silencing charms up—the loud explosion of curses and shouts of frustrated horror was nicely muffled and not a one of his roommates heard him.


	10. Pair

**Prompt: "****Pair****"**

* * *

If you asked Professor Longbottom, he would have told you that he had a gut feeling that any children of Harry Potter and any children of Draco Malfoy were doomed to be at each other's throats for all the years that they would spend together. He was pretty certain of this—he wasn't quite so positive of Ron and Hermione's kids, but he was pretty sure about Harry and Ginny's—so it was no great surprise when one day, he had to break up a fight between the fighting students. What he hadn't suspected that it would be little, sweet Lily that would be trying to claw the eyes out of Scorpius's sockets.

No one could agree on how the fight got started, (most would agree that it was probably over something stupid), but it was mostly between James and Scorpius at first. Then it got personal—James said something nasty about Draco and Scorpius retorted with such a scathing retort about Ginny that Lily broke free of Albus' restraining grip, and flew at the Malfoy heir like an enraged veela.

Professor Longbottom and Professor Moran had to physically pry the struggling pair enough, which was not made any easier when James and Paul Flint tried to jump in. It was Hagrid that finally reached in, and pulled the two other students away from the fight while Longbottom dragged Lily away from Moran and Scorpius. "That's ENOUGH, you two," Hagrid bellowed, holding back from each other. "Now if you lot don't simmer down, I'll have you in detention for every Quidditch match this term."

If a threat like that wasn't enough to ensure that they wouldn't touch each other, than nothing was. James and Paul jumped away as if they had been electrified, both of them terrified of losing their spots on the Quidditch teams for the term. Scorpius and Lily weren't as easily dissuaded as neither was on their House's teams.

"Lily Potter, if you don't stop this instant I shall write your mother about you," Neville hissed, mostly because she had just elbowed him in the chest.

"Detention, Malfoy!" Moran yelled. "I've enough of this nonsense—you knock it off or I'll make sure it isn't just the Potters getting letters about their children. That includes you lot," he addressed the crowd around him that had been cheering either side. "Payne, Caraway, Jones—don't make me name you all, now off with you!"

When Professor Moran started to name off members of the crowd, most took off like a shot rather than get an angry letter home to their parents. The only people left were the Professors, the students that caused the whole affair, and a few of their friends. Rose, Hugo, Albus, and several more of their cousins hung about anxiously watching as the teachers gave their friends and family a severe dressing down.

"-Never in all my days have I seen such a stupid, unnecessary-"

"-I expected better from you lot and here I find you-"

"-If Neville ain't writing home to your parents, I will!"

"Detention!" all three professors chorused. Hagrid had shouted it pointedly at James, Neville at Lily and Scorpius, and Moran at Paul. They shortly told the one(s) they had been addressing to meet them that night (Hagrid and Longbottom specified at dusk though Moran said before dinner).

"And get to class, the lot of ya," Hagrid boomed, sending them scattering.

When Hugo and Lily arrived at Charms, quite late, Hugo joined his cousin in the back of the class and leaned over to his cousin. "Any idea what Uncle Neville has planned for you guys?"

Lily, who was very near tears, shook her head, and refused to look at anyone besides Professor Flitwick. Hugo reached out to squeeze her wrist. She clutched at his hand briefly, but then let go, and returned to her note taking.

Lily absolutely dreaded the thought of detention that night—she had never gotten in such trouble for the three years she'd been at Hogwarts—and while serving detention with Uncle Neville wouldn't have been so bad, Scorpius was enough to put a damper on any hopes she had. Still when dinner finished, she nodded grimly to Hugo, got up and left the Hufflepuff table, trying to keep her head high. As she left, she saw Scorpius Malfoy and Professor Longbottom had already been waiting outside the door. Scorpius looked very tempted to make a comment, but Longbottom coughed and nodded to her.

"You two will work with me tonight and-" he started but after a moment, Professor Patil ran up, and grabbed Longbottom's arm. "Something wrong, Professor?"

"Nev—Professor Longbottom, there's a problem," she panted. "I need your help—the nekonata I had for class has escaped."

Longbottom frowned but Lily noticed the twitch in his hands when she spoke. _But what's a nekonata?_ she wondered. She glanced over at Scorpius with a puzzled expression on her face only to see him do the same thing. They both caught each other looking though, and whipped their heads back to their professors.

"Where'd you think it's gone?" Longbottom asked.

"I think it'll try to head towards the dungeons—there are mice, and Slughorn keeps his specimens down there. It'll try to get to something dead at least."

Longbottom sighed. "Hopefully it won't head outside—we'd never catch it in the Forest, and I'd hate to see what it could do with Dumbledore's remains."

"I'll go get some more professors to help," Patil decided before hurrying into the Great Hall.

Longbottom turned to face the two of them. "Change of plans—you two can serve detention while helping us look for Professor Patil's creature."

"Sir?" Scorpius asked startled. "Is that safe?"

"Oh, not to worry—it can't do much down there. Slughorn's got those jars spelled so tight, even if the things in them tried to get out, they wouldn't. Besides, nekonata aren't so bad one on one," he added.

Lily frowned. "Um…Professor Longbottom?"

"Yes, Miss Potter?"

She nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment. "What is a…nekonata?"

"Oh, that's right, you wouldn't cover those until fourth year," Longbottom blinked then frowned as he tried to recall what he could remember from his Care of Magical Creatures classes. "Well, a nekonata is a cat spirit from Japan. You can tell them apart from normal cats since it has two tails. The problem with them is that they're necromancers."

Lily gasped and Scorpius blurted "Is that _really_ **safe**?"

"I wouldn't worry—nekonata are rarely malicious. Besides, Professor Patil would never have brought in a Dark creature if it could do any real harm." Even if neither student liked each other, both Lily and Scorpius had identical looks of unease on their faces. "Now then, I have an idea—go back in a grab a fish or two. We'll use them as bait."

* * *

Detention, Lily had to admit, wasn't that bad really. They had spent half their time wandering up and down the dungeons before a silver bird flew over, and spoke to them in Professor Patil's voice. "We've got it trapped on the third floor—if you're still willing to help, I could really use some help up here."

After sending off his own toad Patronus, Professor Longbottom led the two students up to help search. As they wandered around, poking their heads into classrooms, opening closets, or checking alcoves, they spoke little to each other. "Professor, if we find this thing before our detention's up, can we just go to bed?" Scorpius asked after closing yet another classroom door.

"Might as well," he answered. "But you two listen—if I catch you having another fight like that again, you will not get off as light. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir," they answered dutifully. Lily glared as he answered in unison, but Scorpius looked amused—whether from her fierce look or from the two of them saying the same thing, she wasn't sure. She didn't like it either way.

They went back to searching; after a while, Lily was tempted to just beg Uncle Neville into letting them off early when she saw a flash of white and orange slipping behind a door. Lily heard a hiss behind her, and she knew that Scorpius had seen it too. Not wanting to let it get away, they both chased after it, and forgot to mention the sighting to Professor Longbottom all together.

"Shut the door," Lily hissed as they ran into the room. Scorpius, who entered a moment after her, shut it and just in time. The nekonata, which if it weren't for the two tails Lily would have mistaken for a regular calico tabby, glared at them, its eyes shining dimly. "Oh, how cute," Lily couldn't help but blurt.

"Cute? Are you insane, Potter?" Scorpius sneered, already creeping towards its right. "I'll get it," Lily had half a mind to hex him, but thought better of it. Instead, she huffed, and watched as Scorpius drew near the cat spirit.

For a moment, it seemed as if the Malfoy heir would actually grab it, but as he lunged for it, the cat leapt straight over his head, _somersaulting_ before landing perfectly as Scorpius crashed into a desk. Lily's jaw dropped opened as it casually brushed some dust off before fixing its gaze on her. For a moment, Lily and they cat stared each other down, and Lily realized unsettlingly that she wasn't winning.

Then the nekonata jumped at her, and Lily ducked as it sailed over her head. "Eep!" she squeaked, dodging the multicolored missile as it soared above her. She staggered to the side, twisting so she could look back; somehow, it landed on the door knob and managed to turn it. It changed into a cloud of patchy vapor as it slipped into the gap between the door. Lily yelled, and began to chase after it, forgetting about Scorpius who managed to pull himself back up and after them. They followed it down the hall into another classroom.

Just before they entered however, Lily tossed her arm out and caught Scorpius. "Just what are you thinking, Potter?" Scorpius huffed when he nearly barrelled into her.

"If we run in there, jumping at it, we'll just both end up chasing after it all night," she explained. She paused then grinned sweetly at him. "You still got the fish?"

Malfoy frowned but then snorted. "Yes."

"Well, then I think-"

"-I know what you think," Scorpius interrupted. "But whatever—I'll distract it, but if you don't catch it, Potter, I'm never going to let you live it down."

Lily didn't bother to answer as she watched him rummage through his pockets for a fish. Finally he found it, wrapped in a napkin so to not stain his pocket.

He frowned. "My pocket smells like fish now—I hope Longbottom's happy."

"I'm sure he will be once we catch this cat," Lily replied tightly, reaching for the door knob. "Ladies first, Malfoy."

"Oh, _thank_ you, kind sir," Scorpius retorted scathingly. "I always knew you were a little on the boyish side, Potter, but I'm glad to see you can admit to it."

Lily was very tempted to slam the door on his leg, but only barely remembered that she need him to distract the nekonata. _Talented boy like Malfoy could suffice without one though,_ she thought with a smirk as she slipped in after him. Her waspish mood vanished however as she joined him inside; she had to strain to see the cat in the shadows of the desks, but it poked its nose up in the air as soon as it smelled the fish.

"Ready?" Scorpius whispered; she nodded and began to edge away from him and closer to the cat.

Lily barely breathed as she inched closer to the cat as it crept forward towards Scorpius and the fish. She managed to get behind when it suddenly jumped at Scorpius. Scorpius let out a high pitched yelp that Lily wasn't aware a boy could manage as the cat latched onto his shirt. Lily cursed, and lunged herself, smashing into both the nekonata and Scorpius, tolping them back onto the door.

"For Salzar's sake, Potter," Scorpius wheezed, "we were supposed catch the bloody thing, not smash it."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she gasped, jumping back. "You okay?"

"Fine, fine, just got jumped by a feline necromancer and you, but other than that-"

"First the _sake_, now this!"

Lily and Scorpius blinked at each other. "Was that-?"

"Why have you betrayed me fish, why?"

Too stunned to be anything else, both students looked down to see the cat, still clinging to Scorpius's shirt and munching on the fish loudly. "Holy…"

"Did you just talk?" Lily asked brightly.

The nekonata huffed at her, and returned to its meal. "Suppose this means it's back to the cage after this, eh?"

Lily and Scorpius just stared.

* * *

If you asked Professor Longbottom, he would have told you that he had a gut feeling that any children of Harry Potter and any children of Draco Malfoy were doomed to be at each other's throats for all the years that they would spend together. He was pretty certain of this—until the two students walked up to him, Scorpius with a calico nekonata in his hands, and Lily with a list of demands from the diva nekonata.

"Enjoy," Scorpius said quickly, shoving the cat into Neville's hands.

"Does this mean we can go to bed now?" Lily asked wearily as she handed over the list.

"I…I suppose," Neville managed.

Both students looked deeply relieved, turned, and wandered off together, talking and agreeing loudly that neither wanted to see another cat for at least awhile.

Neville looked down at the cat in his arms, which was loudly cleaning its paws of fish oil before looking back at him. "So, hell of a night for you too, huh?"

Neville looked between it, the list of demands, and then at the two departing students before he agreed.


	11. Hold

**Prompt: "Hold"**

* * *

"Try shoving harder."

"I _am_ shoving harder. It won't budge."

"Bugger. That's just what I need to hear."

"I am so _happy_ to be of service to you."

"Go to hell, Malfoy."

"I'm already there, Potter."

"Oh, you-!"

"Look, it's your fault we're in this mess in the first place, so don't go 'oh, you'-ing me."

"MY fault! If you hadn't shoved me first we wouldn't be stuck here together now."

"You were the one to pull me in."

"Yes, well, if I had to go down, I was making sure you'd go with me."

"…"

"…"

"Stop that."

"Stop _what?_ Breathing?"

"Stop scowling at me like that—or at least have the decency to try and not look like Potter—James—oh whoever the hell he is. It's aggravating."

"You're _insane_. And it is incredibly unflattering to compare a girl to her older brother; I hope you know that, Malfoy."

"Hence the reason why I did it."

"Asshole."

"Bitch."

"That's it! I've _had_ it."

"Oh, and what exactly are you going to do? Our wands are out there, remember—mmph!"

"Mmm."

"Heh-nnn—ouch!"

"What now?"

"Mop. Jabbed me in the back."

"Smooth. Now come back here and I'll-"

The door suddenly flew open. Filch looked oddly triumphant as Lily Potter and Scorpius Malfoy practically flew apart from each other. "AHA. I knew someone would try this sooner or later!"

Scorpius and Lily shared a look. _You mean no one's ever tried to snog in a broom closet before?_


	12. Inevitable

This is the direct sequel to "Phenomenon" and "Offering". Set not too long after "Phenomenon".

**Prompt: "Inevitable"**

* * *

For Lily Potter, the day was turning out very strange indeed; earlier just after lunch, she and Wren Frost, her good if strange Slytherin friend, had gone on a walk to the lakeside despite the light snowflakes falling down around them and the ominous clouds that promised heavier snows and perhaps a strong storm. Lily never got to spend as much time as she liked with Wren, being in two different houses, and having conflicting schedules that year. But they had finally found time to chat for once, and Lily was quite enjoying it so she was understandably a little miffed when Hugo Weasley appeared out from behind a tree, and shouted to them just as they were about to walk back to the castle. That, and it was bitching cold out, as Fred enjoyed saying (where he picked up the saying was anyone's guess), and he was keeping them from a nice cup of hot cocoa.

"Hey, uh, can I ask you something?" he stuttered as he gripped his thick winter coat.

"Hugo, can't it wait 'til later?" Lily asked, trying to warm her hands around the jar of blue flames she held. "We're kinda busy."

"I, uh…" he blushed thickly. "I meant ask Frost something, actually."

Lily blinked. "Oh," she said after a moment, and then turned to see her friend's reaction.

Wren looked calm, and rather imposing in her thick winter robes and the wide hood, something Victoire Weasley had once mentioned was all the rage in Germany at the moment. She was watching them for a long time before Hugo seemed to realize she was waiting for him to ask his question.

"I was, uh, wo-wondering if I could…" he trailed off, blushing so dark that it seemed his face was intent on turning the same shade of his hair. Lily could hardly even make out his freckles.

Wren blinked slowly.

"If I could…write to you over summer holidays!" he blurted then his eyes went round.

Lily tilted her head to the side, and stared. "Hugo, we haven't even had winter holidays yet. Why would you wait until-?"

"Okay."

Lily turned to look at Wren like she had declared herself the Queen Mother. Hugo seemed delighted though.

"Really?" he asked, grinning.

Wren nodded. "Shall we head back in, Miss Lily? The snow seems to be thickening," she said, glancing up to the clouds.

Lily dumbly looked up to see the darkening clouds then nodded.

"Would you like to join us, Mister Hugo?" Wren asked blandly, as if she had not just agreed to write to Lily's cousin during summer holidays, which was still nearly six months away.

Hugo ecstatically nodded, and happily fell in behind them as they walked back to the castle, trailing behind like a puppy that had found his new master. Wren for her part was quiet until she asked Lily if something was wrong. Realizing she'd been quiet for too long, (really though, who wouldn't be stunned that their two best friends had just hooked up in such a …_different_ fashion?) she tried to fill the air with chatter.

The whole thing put a rather strange angle to the rest of her day, leaving her wandering around a bit dazed. When she had tried to talk to Hugo about it later, he was still so gleefully excited all he could ask her was "Do you think dad will mind if I date a Slytherin?"

She stared at him. "…I think he'll probably blow a gasket if you spring it on him—tell your mom first, and she could break it to him so you won't have to worry about a howler getting sent to you at least."

"Oh, that's brilliant—you should have been sorted into Ravenclaw, you know," he grinned, already rummaging in his bag for parchment, pen, and ink.

She smiled. "Hufflepuff's fine as is, thanks—besides, wouldn't you have preferred me in Gryffindor with you and Albus at least?"

"And Fred and Louis. But Rose says she'd loved you to join her in Ravenclaw," he explained, getting set to write his letter. "Now…where to begin?"

Lily spent the rest of her evening helping him write to his mother. They were in the library so long writing, Madame Pince finally tossed them out. It was nearly time for bed but Lily felt too awake to return to the Hufflepuff Cellar just yet. She wandered around in the less travelled corridors, keeping an eye out for patrolling prefects, or Filch and his cat. Her attention faded from watching eventually, and she began to muse on the strange meeting from earlier.

Wren and her cousin Hugo; it sounded strange no matter how she tried to figure it. Hugo was a bit quiet, but energetic teenage boy. He could be just as much of a troublemaker as James if he wanted—James had even declared his 'heir' when he had graduated two years earlier. Wren was strange no matter what she did—she called everyone either Miss or Mister (or Professor) and by their first names. Everyone, including the teachers, had given up on correcting her strange quirk. But then she seemed to have strange fascinations, such as with Pure Blood lines, and the girl even _enjoyed_ their history lessons with Professor Binns of all things. The only thing they had in common that Lily could think of was that they enjoyed sports—although Hugo loved Quidditch, and Wren was a fanatical football fan.

Resigning herself to never figuring out the strange whim of fate that seemed intent on bringing her two best friends together, Lily never even noticed when she ran smack-dab into another body. She stumbled backwards from the force, only staying on her feet because a hand caught her elbow before she sprawled onto the floor. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, I was—oh, it's you," she said, frowning up at Scorpius Malfoy.

"Should have known it would be a Potter trying to plow me down," he retorted, frowning lightly.

She glared up at him, but refused to comment; while she didn't in particular have a problem with the Malfoy heir, his past along with his father's made him off-putting enough. Scorpius and James had never gotten along during school. When James had graduated, everyone—not just their families but half the school it seemed—thought that Albus would pick up the slack. But then, surprisingly, they didn't. Scorpius and Albus just didn't actually want to fight each other; as far as Lily knew, they were on a first name basis, and would occasionally talk to each other about various subjects. The only way she could figure it was to think it stemmed from the fact that while both liked Quidditch, neither was on their house's teams—in fact, they switched spots regularly as the Quidditch commentators. Albus covered most of the Gryffindor matches, and Scorpius covered the Slytherin ones, switching every now and then on who commented on the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff matches, and the Gryffindor versus Slytherin matches.

Lily had only talked to the Malfoy heir herself once; her first winter at school she had spotted him brooding under a tree near the lake, and had gone to offer him a handkerchief to take care of a rather embarrassing bogey hanging from his nose. She had been amused, and he had avoided her like the plague afterward. _I guess he never really got over that then._

He certainly didn't look like he did. He let go of her elbow like it was electrified, and stepped back. Feeling a bit insulted, she drew herself up to glare at the Slytherin prefect. "It's time for lights out, Potter—what are you still doing traipsing around anyway?"

She sniffed. "None of your business—I was just on my way back to the common room anyway."

He smirked. "The Hufflepuff common room is in the _other_ direction, Potter."

She looked, and realized, yes, it was. She fought not to blush, and admit defeat by doing so. "I'm taking the long way about."

"The very long way," he nodded.

He wasn't buying it for a second, she saw. "I don't need your permission to walk where I want."

"Considering that you only have twelve minutes to get back to your common room before I can dock you points, or turn you in to a teacher, give it a little bit, and yes, you _will_ need my permission."

"You would like that, wouldn't you, Malfoy?" she huffed.

"It would make my day a happier one, I'll admit," he said with a toothy grin.

"I never pegged you for the type to put up with begging."

He raised a brow. "How so, Potter?"

"Oh, Malfoy, don't be coy—you're the famous hard ass prefect who never puts up with students' excuses when you find them out late, right? Or would seeing me beg just be enough for you to get your jollies off?" she smirked.

She waited for a quip, but none ever flew back. He just watched her with the same bland kind of look Wren had given Hugo earlier. It was unsettling, seeing him just stare at her like she was some unusual, but uninteresting insect on a peg board. It was downright creepy. Finally he spoke, his voice sounding almost like it was cracking. "Get back to your common room, Potter."

She blinked at the order. "What?"

"I said get back. To your. Common room. Potter," he repeated through his gritted teeth.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked, staring at him. Then she smirked. "Did something I say hit a nerve? Serves you right, harassing me like this-"

"I said go, Potter!" he snapped, nearly shouting at her. He loomed dangerously close to her, and she stepped back, straight into the wall behind her.

"What…_what_ the bloody hell's got you so wound up?" she stuttered.

Now, the fact of the manner was what really did have Scorpius wound up was not something she could have foreseen unless she was a Seer or a Legimens; several weeks ago, Scorpius Malfoy woke up from an embarrassing dream only to realize he'd had a rather steamy dream about _her_. Since then, he'd been having the same dream, over and over every night, and right then the only thing he could think of was "_You'll have to catch me first,"_ and her smirk which she had just been flashing at him. If she had known, then maybe she would have at least had a clue as to why in the next moment he had his hands cupping her face as he snogged her very thoroughly.

After being shocked once already that day, well, it's understandable she just sort of stood there stunned even as he pulled back. He looked at her for a moment then started to walk away.

"He-hey! Bastard, what did you bloody do that for?" she snapped at him. He turned back to her coolly.

"I don't like kissing people who are about as responsive as a rock so-" he began.

"Not that, you git! I meant, why did you-" she started.

"Is something wrong here?"

Both Scorpius and Lily turned to look at who had spoken; to Lily's horror it was Albus, looking very confused at the two of them. "Al-Albus, what are you doing here?" she asked, wondering just how much he had seen and heard.

"I heard some shouting around the corner from where I was patrolling, and came to investigate," he explained. "What were you two arguing about?"

"Your sister ran into me as I was walking around, and seemed to take offense, I suppose," Scorpius explained dryly, shrugging to accentuate his point.

Albus blinked, and looked to his sister. "That true, Lils?" he asked. Scorpius was giving her a rather severe look from the corner of his eye, making Lily sweat bullets.

It was insulting to think he was just going to blow it off like that, but then she didn't really want to explain to her brother that Scorpius had just kissed her—rather nicely, not to mention—and perhaps ruin whatever friendship might be between the two boys. Besides, it got her off the hook. "I…yeah, something like that."

Albus turned back to Scorpius. "I don't suppose you two could let bygones be bygones?"

"Of course, Albus—if your sister agrees of course," he added.

Albus grinned at her. "I'm sure she'll agree—right, sis?"

Lily tried to smile back. "Of…of course."

"Good, all's settled then." Albus then blinked as he recalled something. "Oh yes, Lily, you'd better be getting to bed—Filch is wandering around here, and he's all wound up over everyone tracking snow and mud in all day today." Lily flinched as she remembered the fact that she was one of those people that tracked in mud and snow. "You wait here and I'll check to see if it's clear, okay?" he said, patting his pocket, signaling her that he had the Marauder's Map on him.

She nodded to him uncomfortably as he walked around the corner, no doubt going far enough away from them before he would check the map, leaving her with Scorpius. The minute Albus left however, Scorpius seemed to think he too was going to leave. "Hey," she hissed as she grabbed his sleeve. "You're not going anywhere until you explain what just happened!"

He froze then turned back to her. "What's to explain? I kissed you, you didn't respond, so I'm going."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it, you twit. _Why_ did you kiss me?"

He hesitated for awhile.

"Well?"

"…because," he answered finally.

She nearly blew up at him. "Because! You kissed me just _because_? God, you're such a…such a…"

He raised a brow. "Such a…?"

"…cock tease," she blurted then blushed. "A flirt, a…you know what I mean."

"Lily," Albus said, poking his head back around the corner making them both jump. Albus frowned at Lily's hand gripping Scorpius's sleeve so she let go like she was bitten by it. "…the coast is clear. You better get going."

"I, uh, will. Thanks, Al," she said brightly.

He still frowned. "No problem." Seeing that she wasn't leaving, he raised a brow, but turned, and left without saying another word. Lily swore to get him the best Christmas present she could afford for not pressing for answers despite his curiosity, even if she had to beg money from her father to do it.

"Best get to bed, Potter," Scorpius said, reminding her that he was still there. "You've only got a minute left now," he smirked. "Then you will have to beg."

She glared at him. Suddenly, she reached up, snagged his collar of his highly fashionable robe, and yanked him down so she could glare eye to eye with him. "My _name_ is Lily—and you would enjoy that too much," she said simply, and then deciding she deserved some revenge, she kissed _him_. Not that it quite worked out the way she planned—she had wanted to surprise him, not have him snog her back instantly.

Boy did know how to kiss however.

Beyond them, somewhere in the hall, a clock chimed the hour, and the parted to listen.

Scorpius smirked. "Better start begging, _Lily_."

Was it possible to make her name sound as delicious as he just did? She raised a brow at him, and fought not letting her thoughts show. "You'll have to catch me first."

She had meant to turn on her heel, and leave, but with the snogging that followed after that remark almost left her too breathless to get up off the floor, let alone walk back to her dormitory. _What a peculiar day,_ she mused to herself as staggered back to her common room.


	13. Process

I ...feel bad; there's an OC in here that I had meant to establish earlier than this, but I haven't finished it in time. ^^; I'm sorry, ya'll. I promise to expand upon her later.

**Prompt: "Process"**

* * *

They told his parents first—the Malfoys were the type that if they learned something about their son they didn't like, they wouldn't tell others, so as to not bring shame upon themselves. Sure, Draco nearly had a conniption, but Astoria fixed him with a look that brooked no arguments. Still, beneath the table, Scorpius gripped Lily's hand so hard, she feared her fingers would snap as she tried to squeeze back.

"If that's your decision," Draco finally grumbled, looking paler than usual, something Lily had never known to be possible. Astoria nodded to them, looking very regal, but before they left, Astoria pulled Lily aside, and started suggesting when a good due date for her first grandchild would be. Scorpius had been horrified, and tried to shuffle her out quickly, but Lily saw Draco's amused look to his perfectly innocent wife.

Lyra, Scorpius's younger sister, beamed at them when they told her the news. "I get to be godmother to any of your children, okay?"

The next person they went to see was Hugo, but since Wren was there as well, they told the two of them together. Hugo looked between the two of them, beaming. "Oh, good! Now dad will lay off me dating a former Slytherin once you tell him this!"

Lily kicked her cousin under the table. Wren looked unsurprised. "I'll be planning your wedding, correct?"

Scorpius opened his mouth to correct her, but Lily quickly grabbed his hand. "Of course—you will let me pick out my wedding dress though, right?"

Wren mulled it over. "I suppose so. Congratulations, Mr. Scorpius. Miss Lily."

Hugo grinned at his girlfriend. "You're going to have to start calling her Missus soon."

Wren blinked. "Yes. Mrs. Lily…"

Lily blanched. "Please do not send out my invitations with that on it, okay?"

Her best girl friend looked mildly disappointed. "If you insist."

Scorpius told her to leave it to him to inform his best friend, Paul Flint. He returned the next morning hung over, but in high spirits. While he was gone, Lily managed to get a hold of Teddy to tell him the news. Thankfully, Victoire was out at the moment—Lily loved her cousin, but she tended to gossip. Teddy smiled gently, and assured her that if James put up any fuss, he'd set him in his place. Lily hugged this man she considered one of her brothers, and thanked him greatly.

Having had a positive response so far, Lily and Scorpius finally went to Harry and Ginny to tell them about their plans. Lily pressed the doorbell, and waited, clasping Scorpius's sweaty palms with her own. Harry opened the door, his eyes lighting up when he saw his daughter then turned curious as he looked at Scorpius, and then intrigued as he looked at their entwined hands. Lily took a deep breath, but then Harry looked back up at her face, one brow cocked up, and quietly stepped aside to let them in.

"Hello," he greeted them as Lily kissed his cheek. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't come see my father whether I want?" Lily tried to tease.

Harry raised both brows. "Anytime you wish. However, I'd still like to know why you two look like you're walking to the gallows."

Scorpius's careful mask nearly slipped, and Lily quickly looked away to look around. "I don't see mom here—is she out in the garden?"

"Out getting groceries with James actually," Harry answered, still looking bemused as now panic flickered across both Scorpius and Lily's faces. "They'll be home shortly."

"Shortly?" she echoed, now imagining the combined force of Ginny and James's wrath.

"You and your brother haven't been fighting, have you?" Harry asked, leading them to the kitchen.

"No," Lily squeaked as she took a seat at the table.

Harry paused then went over to put a kettle of water on the stove. "Lily," he said after a moment, making them both jump. "There's not going to be a row when he gets here, will there?"

"I hope not."

Her father turned back, leaning back against the counter, and crossed his arms. "Alright, young lady, out with it."

"With what?" Lily's voice cracked.

"You haven't run off, and eloped, have you?" he asked, making the two of them blanch. "Because, heaven knows your mother will never be able to let me-" Harry was cut off by the sound of the front door opening. Lily was relieved for a moment until she heard James calling out to their father before he came into the kitchen, arms loaded up with grocery bags.

Her brother caught sight of her, and looked pleased for a moment before he looked to see Scorpius sitting next to her. He scowled, and was about to speak when Ginny unceremoniously shoved him forward with her foot. Her mother gave her a glowing look, but then a definite cool gaze at the Malfoy heir.

"What are you doing here?" James asked, as he shoved the bags unto the counter before turning back, putting his fists on his hips, and glaring at the two them.

Ginny glared briefly at her eldest child. "Don't be rude, James." But she did give the two of them a curious look. "You should have rung us, Lily; I would have made sure to come home sooner."

"That's alright," Lily answered tightly. "I wouldn't want to have rushed you."

"I think they've come to tell us they've eloped, or pregnant," Harry joked. "They're jumpier than Mad Eye Moody was."

"WHAT?" James yelled.

Ginny frowned darkly at her oldest. "Volume, James. Lily, do you have something to tell us?"

Lily's throat made a croaking noise. Finally, she found her voice. "I'm not pregnant."

Ginny blinked slowly. "I should hope not—you're not ready, neither of you."

Under other conditions, Lily would have retorted some quip, and maybe that was what her mother had been trying for, but as it was, Lily could only choke as she tried to continue. "We're...not married either…not…yet."

Lily had pretty much guessed her brother's reaction, but her mother surprised her—while she had half imagined Ginny screaming, and tossing something around, her face instead changed into a very neutral reaction. James, however, had no problem saying what he thought about this.

"YOU'RE GETTING WHAT? TO HIM? Are you _insane_-?" her brother yelled.

Harry turned to his son. "James. Enough." James fell silent, mouth still hanging open, his lips still trying to form words.

"Honestly, Ron took our engagement better than that," Ginny said.

"Well, I was his best mate, but say Draco proposed to you—he'd probably have the same reaction then," Harry suggested.

Ginny shivered then turned back to her daughter. It was Scorpius's turn to get his hand crushed as Lily tried to met her mother's gaze. Finally, Ginny sighed. "I'm going to have to fight that Frost girl for helping plan your wedding, aren't I?"

"Wren always was a strange girl," Harry mused.

Lily's grip went slack, and Scorpius had to grab at her hand as it slipped from his.

James gaped at his parents. "You can't be serious!"

"No, you're Sirius—James Sirius," his parents chimed together, less of a joke, and more of a habit.

James clapped a hand over his eyes, and groaned.

Lily shared a tentative look with Scorpius before she licked her lips, and spoke up. "James?"

"What?" he asked in a put upon voice. He finally looked up to see her anxious face, and then glanced at his parents' expecting looks. Finally, he sighed. "Oh, fine. Do what you want."

Lily gave him a weak smile. "Thank you, James."

Her brother gave her a tired smile, but then realized everyone could see his expression, so he quickly changed it to one of aloofness. "Yes, well, it's your life."

Scorpius squeezed her hand, and she smiled.


	14. Growth

**Prompt: "Growth"**

**EDIT: Jesus, you guys could have told me how many errors there were in here.**

* * *

It was mid February, Lily remembered it was during Charms class in particular, because Hugo's Cheering Charm made her face ache from grinning so hard, when Professor Longbottom called her out into the hall to find both of her brothers waiting. "Dad's here," James announced before she even opened her mouth.

"And he wants to talk to us," Albus added. Neville snorted in amusement as the boys did his job of filling their little sister in.

"He's waiting for you at Hagrid's hut," Neville explained. "I'll walk you down there."

"That's okay, Uncle Neville," James tried to tell him.

"We know the way," Lily added, rubbing her cheeks, trying to relieve some of the pain. Her own joy to see her father was added to the charm, although Lily had been certain a few minutes before that her smile couldn't stretch any wider, but the charm seemed determined to prove her wrong.

"Are you alright?" Albus asked.

She shook her head. "Cheering Charms; hurts to smile so much."

"Oh, is that your problem?" Neville asked. "It'll wear off in awhile."

"Uncle Ne—Professor Longbottom, do you know what our dad wants?" James asked as they exited the castle.

"Not sure," Neville answered honestly, holding the door open for the other two. Together, they walked out to Hagrid's hut. As they drew closer, Lily saw her father sitting next to Hagrid inside the hut, chatting with his old friend.

"Dad!" James shouted, running ahead. Lily and Albus followed closely after, hugging their father tightly as he got up to greet them. Neville quietly closed the door after them, and accepted a cup of warm tea from Hagrid.

"Hello," Harry beamed, like he had never been more pleased to see anyone in his whole life. "You've been on good behavior since the last I saw you, right?"

James and Albus were pointedly quiet, but Lily was happy to cover for them. "We've been good, daddy."

Neville and Hagrid both made noises of disbelief, but Harry ignored them, and rubbed an affectionate hand over the crown of her head. "I suppose that means you lot will just have to try harder, eh?"

"Harry," Neville began dryly. "Please, don't encourage them—we still haven't been able to clean the scorch marks off the floors on the third floor since their last prank."

Harry chuckled, and clapped James on the back. "Try not to make such a hassle for Neville next time, will you?"

"Yes, dad," he answered dutifully.

"Daddy?" Lily began, tugging on his coat. "What _are_ you doing here?"

Lily wondered if someone had put a Cheering Charm on her father; he seemed to brighten up even more, then quickly gestured them to sit. "I have some very important news—now, you know your mother and I always wanted to have a big family-"

James jumped to his feet excitedly. "You're adopting Teddy?"

Harry paused, amused. "Actually, no. But you are getting another sibling." Realization dawned upon all his children. "Your mother's pregnant."

"Congratulations, Harry," Neville grinned.

"Wonderful!" Hagrid boomed, clapping Harry on the back so hard, he nearly pitched face first into the table.

"Mum's having another baby?" James asked eyes wide.

"I thought she was too old," Albus said, head cocked to the side.

Harry looked bemused at them. "And here I hoped you'd be excited."

Both his sons' faces changed instantly into grins. "It's not that-"

"Just surprised us, that's all," James finished. "Will it be a boy?"

"When's mum due?" Albus added.

Harry smiled again. "In October, and we aren't sure which it will be yet." He turned to look at Lily curiously. "Lily? Are you okay?"

Lily was suddenly glad for the Cheering Charm—her face was still alight with laughter, making the lie much easier. "Of course!"

Harry frowned thoughtfully at her, but didn't comment as Hagrid, Neville, and the boys began to talk to him. If Lily could have frowned, she would have.

* * *

"And that's what happened," she finished, distractedly rolling a pebble across the stones. Lily paused to glance up at Scorpius, who had stopped looking through his telescope to politely listen to her. "Am I…a bad person for not wanting my parents to have more children?"

Scorpius scoffed gently and looked into his telescope. "No, you're not," he answered, as he distractedly wrote something onto his spiral bound notebook.

Lily frowned when he didn't go on; she sat up, letting his cloak that he lent her fall to her lap. "But it isn't normal, is it?" she insisted.

Scorpius pulled back from the eye piece to frown blandly at her. "You sound almost as if you wished it was."

Her jaw dropped to his apparent amusement, and she staggered to her feet. "I do NOT wish it was! How could you insinuate that?"

He turned to jot something down on his notebook. "I wasn't the one insinuating it, Lily, you did when you refused to let it drop."

She growled in frustration, kicked his cloak at her feet, then pointedly huffed as she let her lower body hit with a thud against the wall next to him. He didn't say anything as she pouted, and she pondered kicking his ankle too, just so he would realize how upset she was.

"Listen, you've been the youngest for thirteen years—you've been your parent's baby since you were born, it's normal not want your parents to have more kids…" he began, before he turned back to her. "That's what everyone's told you, huh?"

She blushed, and scoffed her shoes against the stones. "Maybe," she admitted.

He snorted quietly; he reached out to softly snatch her wrist. "That's what everyone told me too, when Lyra was born," he admittedly, tenderly running a thumb across the web of blue veins on her bony wrist. "It's not untrue. It just sounds too simple, too pretty to be right."

She glanced up at him from the corner of her eye. "What did you think when she was born?"

Scorpius sighed, letting out a hiss through his teeth. "Me? Well, mum and dad first told me when I was four that I was going to have a new little brother or sister, so I got used to the idea."

Lily frowned. "But Lyra's only-"

"Seven, yes," he nodded, pulling out the rumpled pack of cigarettes he'd smuggled in earlier in the year. He offered her one, and she was too honored to be offered one of his prized cigarettes to refuse. She leaned in so he could light it with his wand, then gently blew out the smoke as they both settled back against the wall. "The baby—mum lost it really late. They kept trying and trying. By the time I was eight, I was more than willing to have her finally come. When I saw my parents trying so hard for those years in between, I really couldn't bring myself to be upset to not be their only child. In fact, I enjoyed it when she finally came."

Lily paused then turned her head away from him to consider her cigarette before she took a long drag. She couldn't help but chuckle as the smoke drifted away. "I guess you aren't the best person to ask then, huh?"

He smirked, letting her entwine her fingers with his. "No, not really. I'd probably try Weasley—Rose—or James even…well, not James."

She rolled her eyes. "You two will have to make peace eventually."

"Or," he suggested, eyes glinting. "We could run off, and elope before he can find us."

She laughed. "We're too young!"

"Well, not now obviously," he amended, smirking still. "Later."

She smiled softly, and leaned against his shoulder. "Thanks, Scorp."

He squeezed her hand before he finally let go. "I've got to finish catching up on my astronomy homework still—you should head to bed," he reminded her, adjusting his telescope.

She crushed the used up cigarette into the balcony's floor. "Night, Scorpius," she called to him. Then she paused at the entrance way, before slowly turning back to him. "When I am older, I expect a better proposal than that one. Just so you know."

"Damn," he cursed playfully. "That'll take a while to think up."

She grinned at him, and walked back to give him a kiss good night. "Don't catch cold," she warned him.

"Sweet dreams, Lily."


	15. Fame

Two and a half drabbles, so a 250 words. I love drabbles, yay. ALSO, this is not in continuity with the rest of the chapters.

**Prompt: "Fame"**

**

* * *

**

It was not easy being the only daughter and youngest child of Harry and Ginny Potter Lily found. It was impossible to go on a family outing without someone wandering up to pester her parents either for autographs or for interviews. Harry was not only the Boy who Lived, he was also the Chosen One, and Vanquisher of the Dark Lord; her mother was also a war hero, and not to mention Captain of the Holyhead Harpies.

It was a lonely life at times; then again, at least she had her brothers and cousins to share the burden.

* * *

It was not easy being the only son of Draco Malfoy or the grandson of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy Scorpius found. He came from a long line of malevolent bigots, although his father made a point to never use _any_ racial slurs in front of him. But no matter how well his father cleaned up his act, no one would let him forget it, not would they let Scorpius. In public, he and his parents would receive dirty looks, or terrible treatment. Scorpius lost count of all the rude comments he got at school alone.

It was a lonely life, he found.

* * *

It was not easy being children of celebrities, both Scorpius and Lily knew this for a fact. It was lonely and miserable at times.

_But at least_, Scorpius thought as Lily slid her hand into his, _it's not so bad when you have someone else to bear the burden with_.


	16. Side

**Sorry, sorry, my power went out, and I was a bit stumped on something to do for this week. (Next week however...)**

**Prompt: "Side"**

* * *

When Scorpius was seven years old, his father had brought him to the Ministry. Originally, Draco had only meant to come in, talk to someone he knew—Scorpius couldn't remember, not that he really tried hard since he never cared for any of the friends his father had at the Ministry—and then he and his son would go, pick up Astoria from her work, and then go someplace for supper. But then his father and his friend—wait, were they friends even? Scoprius wasn't sure—seemed to have gotten caught up in something, leaving Scorpius to sit on one of the chairs outside or the offices, pumping his legs back and forth distractedly.

He was really tempted to go into the office, and pester his father to go. The only thing that stopped was the memory of what happened after the last time he did it; Scorpius had been out with his father and his grandmother Narcissa, and when he had become bored while they waited in line, he had begun to tug on his father's coat and hands, begging to leave already. Narcissa had sharply commanded him to stop, and when they returned home, Narcissa had given him a talking to that left his ears ringing. His father had tried to "make up" for it later by bringing him a piece of cake—Draco enjoyed spoiling his son a bit at times—but Scorpius always hesitated before he tried to pester his father in public again.

Bored, and growing more agitated by the minute, Scorpius let his gaze wander over his surrondings, looking for anything of interest. After a moment, he began drum his uneven nails against the chair's arm when the elevator at the end of the hall opened with a loud _ping_, and a small red-haired girl with pigtails came running down the hall to join him in the waiting room. She provided him with a distraction, so he bemusedly watched as she looked around at the offices' windows. Frowning thoughtfully, she took a seat across from him.

By the time she finished climbing into her chair, and getting settled, she happened to notice him looking. He was going to look away, if somewhat hastily, but then she pulled a face at him. She stuck her tongue, and scrunched up her face.

His jaw dropped open in shock. No one had ever done _that_ to him before. He glanced over at the office where he could still see his father standing in, then turned to look thoughtfully at the little girl who was making another face at him. After a moment, he mad his jaw jut out in pantomime of an extreme under bite, then rolled his eyes up as far as he could.

She began to giggle instantly, trying half-heartedly to shush herself by covering her mouth. In return, she took her hands, and began to include them in making ridiculous faces.

Not one to be one-upped; Scorpius returned the favour by sticking his thumb to his nose, waggling his other fingers, and then loudly blowing a raspberry at her.

For the next five minutes, they tried to out-do each other in making the most grotesque faces as possible. But then, the elevator opened again, and a rather harried dark haired man with glasses ran out of it, looking around. He hurried down the hall to their waiting room, and then visibly relaxed when he saw the girl.

"Lily!" He sighed, walking over to her quickly, and scooping her up out of the chair. "Lily Luna Potter, what were you told about playing hide-and-seek when we come here?"

She blinked owlishly at him, and Scorpius felt a stab of sympathy as he watched her get scolded. "Don't start without telling you first?"

Harry's shoulders sagged, but his lips quirked up in amusement. "…yes, Lily. But besides that."

"…don't leave the floor we're on already?" she tried again.

"Looks like you have quite the handful there, Potter."

Scorpius blinked, then turned to see his father looking a little pale. Scorpius glanced over to "Potter" to see him tense up.

"Malfoy," "Potter" greeted his Scorpius's father. "I see your child's here too."

Draco glanced over at his son, but then quickly gazed back at the dark haired man. Scorpius watched in tepid interest as his father and the black haired Mr. Potter began to exchange some uneasy words. What was much more interesting Scorpius found, is when Mr. Potter set Lily down when she began to fuss. When she was out of his arms, and he wasn't quite paying her mind, Lily quickly ran over to the Scorpius, and climbed into the chair next to him.

She had a little trouble getting up, so Scorpius helped haul her into the seat, but once she was there, she grinned then quickly resumed their old game by making a new face at him. Scorpius couldn't help, but smile, and tried to top her.

"Lily!"

"Scorpius!"

Both he and Lily jumped, and looked at their respective fathers. Both looked shocked at them.

"Lily, we do not make faces at people we just met-"

"That is not becoming behavior of a young gentleman, Scorpius-"

Both fathers now turned to give each other confused looks before turning back to their children.

"Lily, apologize."

"You too, Scorpius."

Scorpius and Lily turned to each other. Lily shrugged then stuck out her hand; Scorpius shook it with the same look of resigned confusion that was displayed on her face.

"Right, come along, Scorpius," Draco ordered.

"Lily, we have to go back to my office now," Mr. Potter said, walking over, and picking her back up. Since neither man looked comfortable with taking the same elevator, Lily's father waited as Scorpius and his father left.

As they walked down the hallway, Scorpius glanced over his shoulder to the father and daughter pair. Lily quietly raised her arm, and waved. "Buh-bye," she said softly, gaining a taken aback look from her father.

Scorpius waved back. "Bye," he answered just as softly. Then feeling a little stunned, Scorpius reached up for his father's hand, and they both got into the elevator.

* * *

Lily's father was still giving her a surprised look when look back at him. "Lily, sweet heart, did you know who that was?"

Lily paused. "No. But he played with me. I like him," she confided as her father made his way slowly for the elevator. "Do you think I could play with him again next time I come with you?"

Harry tried hard not to snort—not at his daughter, but more from the fact that he could see Malfoy specifically ordering his son not to talk with his daughter again. "I…doubt it, hun."

"Oh," she murmured, putting her arms around his neck, and laying her head against his shoulder. "I would really like to though soon, daddy."

Harry hummed softly as he thought. "Well…who knows. Maybe one day."

Lily smiled. _I'll just have to make sure we do._


	17. Preserve

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry, this wasn't up earlier--I spent the day with friends. Oh, and do you remember me saying in the other chapter, that Ginny was pregnant? I was going to add that, err, outcome to that in here, but I decided not to at the last minute. But I'll resolve that. Someday.

**Prompt: "Preserve"**

* * *

Before the bell even finished ringing a moment after she pressed it, Lily turned to Scorpius, grabbing his collar. "Don't forget your promise."

Scorpius sighed at the manhandling, but he decided to let it pass. Her mood swings had been getting worse lately. "I haven't. And I won't—relax, why don't you?"

A corner of her mouth twitched upward, and she sighed herself. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly, "but this is important to Dominique for getting to host Christmas this year, and I-" Lily never got a chance to finish; the door wrenched open, making the two of them jump, and Louis gazed hopefully at them.

"Thank god it's you!" he nearly shouted. He reached, and snatched Lily's wrist, pulling her in sharply. "You have to help; it's a nightmare."

Scorpius frowned, and stepped in, shutting the door behind them. He glared at his wife's cousin as he tried to yank her coat off her arms to her discomfort. She brushed him off, and Scorpius stepped up to help ease her out. She smiled gratefully as he took off his own coat, waiting until one of his hands were free for her to hold while she let her other hand rest of the pronounced curve of her belly.

"What's all the fuss about now, Louis?" she asked.

Before he had time to answer, there was a loud sob from the living room, and a din of angry voices nearly drowned the noise out. Louis groaned. "It's Lucy—she brought her girlfriend over, so grandma' am pitched a right fit. Now Dominique crying, Mum's ranting _in French_, Dad's hiding out somewhere with granddad, and I'm pretty sure Uncle Ron, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, and _Rose_ are drunk."

Scorpius paused, and then coughed. "Right. Why didn't we go to my parents this year?"

Lily covered her eyes. "Because they're in Venice. They took Lyra with them."

Louis rolled his eyes. "God, what I'd give to be in Venice right now. But, c'mon, Lils, say you'll help."

"Where's my parents and my brothers?" she sighed.

Louis paused to consider it. "James is with Teddy and Victoire, they're playing with the baby. I don't think Al's shown up yet. Your dad's with James and them, and your mum's…"

She raised a brow at him when he failed to go on. "…my mum is…?"

Louis stalled until Lily's glare was close to being considered an Unforgivable curse unto itself. "She's yelling at grandma' am. For yelling about Lucy. Aunt Audrey is helping."

Lily covered her face again with her hand; Scorpius was willing to bet good money that if it weren't so close to the due date for the baby, she might have tempted appariting to escape the whole mess. He squeezed her hand, trying to send her moral support. Finally, she huffed, and let her hand fall back to her stomach. "Fine. Fine—just…get me to a chair. My feet are killing me."

Scorpius let go of her hand to rub her lower back gently as Louis led them to the living room. True to his word, Scorpius quickly spotted his father and brother-in-law playing with the Lupins' new baby, while his mother-in-law heatedly yelled at the Weasley's matriarch, with another woman and a blonde yelling in French helping her. Scorpius was able to pick some more of the Weasley family—he saw Rose along with her father, in deed drunk, at a table with some more family members, while Hermione Weasley kept throwing dark looks at her husband and daughter while Hugo and Roxanne tried to calm Dominique down as she sobbed loudly. Molly (the younger) was with a bespectacled Weasley man, he guessed her father, both of them trying to talk to the irate Lucy and her very mortified looking girlfriend next to her.

Scorpius watched as Lily took in the situation in front of them, before she tried to walk over to her mother.

Tried being the operative word there.

Before she even made it half way, Lily made a noise that made Scorpius, along with the rest of her family, rush over. He only paused at the last minute to take stock of the scene once more. It sounded like she had been kicked in the gut, followed by a very convincing groan. Since Ginny had rushed over to her when she groaned, Molly (the elder) had also spotted Lily's distress, and came quickly. When the one argument stopped, Lucy, her father, and her sister stopped fighting as well, to look at the small commotion Lily had caused. For a moment, Dominique even stopped crying to gaze in confusion as the Potters and several Weasleys began to flitter around Lily worriedly.

Standing next to the befuddled Louis, Scorpius caught Lily's wink, and let out the breath he had been holding in.

"Brilliant girl," Louis grinned next to him. "Too bad she keeps turning down Uncle George's job offers at the shop."

Scorpius smirked at him, and moved to join his wife. She gave him a wobbly grin. "False alarm," she explained as he elbowed his way to her.

"I see," he answered, trying not to ruin her charade by laughing. Apparently he wasn't the only one who caught onto her act; Ginny and Harry were smirking a bit themselves.

"Would you like something to drink, sweetie?" Molly asked, trying to make her comfortable on the couch.

"A glass of water would be nice," she murmured, obviously going to ham up her performance a bit.

"Louis, water," the blonde French woman ordered, still looking peeved.

Louis put his hands up defensively, and backed away until he was near the kitchen.

"Here, Scorpius," Harry said over his shoulder. "I'll take those," he said, nodding to the coats on his arm. Scorpius gratefully handed them over, and then tried to get a spot on the couch next to his pregnant wife.

Now that "emergency" was over, Lily's grandmother began to lecture her on being more careful so close to her due date. Lily bore it well, and eventually Molly began to chatter about more pleasant things. Finally, the matriarch left, and when Albus finally showed up, Ginny left to go greet him.

It was only after the more drunken family members began to sing Christmas carols, and Molly went to make peace with her granddaughter, did Scorpius lean over to his wife to speak. "That was quite the performance," he whispered. "Tell me, why weren't you in Slytherin again?"

Lily grinned at over the rim of her glass. "Because I did it for Lucy and Dominique, not myself."

"A shame though," he mused, leaning back. "I would have enjoyed having you in my house."

"Why so you could have _seduced_ me sooner?"

He grinned, and she kissed his cheek.

"Merry Christmas, mister Malfoy."

He tucked a wisp of hair out of her face. "Merry Christmas, missus Malfoy."


	18. Until

This chapter was set on not being written. Bugger.

**Prompt: "Until"**

* * *

Some mornings, Lily likes to reach over, and hug the empty side of her bed. She smirks, gets up, and starts her day with the sort of satisfaction that would have worried others. By those nights however, she staggered in, plastered, and sobbing on Molly's—the younger—shoulder, because Molly was the only one with enough patience to get her into home after one of her benders.

"I'm the most awful person alive," she sobs as Molly gets her out of her filthy clothes and into fresh pyjamas. "I don't blame him for leaving! Look at me, I'm an absolute mess." She rants for at least another twenty minutes as Molly soothes, and shushes her until at last she sleeps. She'll leave her cousin a potion to help with her hang over later, but enough Molly doesn't have the patience to keep watch over her all night.

Other mornings, Lily wakes up sobbing, clutching at the empty side of the bed. Those days, she won't get up until after two when Roxanne and Fred force her up, and cook her something. Those nights end with her passed out in her bathtub, nursing a firewhiskey.

Most mornings, however, usually start with her reaching over to find Scorpius still sleeping soundly. Those mornings, she smile, kiss his shoulder blade lightly, then get up, and make breakfast. Those nights could end up any variety of ways, but recently, most nights have ended in fights, and one of them stalking off somewhere.

Lily knows they can't last, not the way they're going, but at least she prays for the good mornings more often before it does end. Which of the two mornings is better, she couldn't say, but she wishes all the same.


	19. Abandon

Mmm, definitely AU from everything else. This chapter wanted to be a full length story with everyone under the sun involved. I mercilessly gutted it. But I'm still tempted to take this, and write something longer for it.

**Prompt: "Abandon"**

* * *

It was three long weeks before Lily or Scorpius can get a civil word out, outside of the emergency ward that is. They just couldn't find common ground that didn't end in a fight, despite his friendship with her brother. Not even work was scared, not when Scorpius couldn't keep his hands from shaking, and Lily's cruel mouth said things that make her moody when she drank with Hugo in the evenings.

Lily knew what she wanted to do after she graduated—so barely three weeks after graduating, Lily signed up for medi-witch training. Scorpius dawdled for two years, until his parents finally cornered him. They both signed up for classes around the same time, but at different places, so they never ran into each other until they took their residencies at St. Culhwch outside of Bristol. Besides St. Mungo's, it was the biggest and best place to learn magical medicine.

Still, for being stuck together, they waited as long as humanly possibly before the doctor they were learning from said on no certain terms that if they couldn't get along with each other, then they were both out. They managed to hold out for a few weeks more after that first civil conversation to have an actual conversation—one that didn't end in a fight.

It just so happened, that it occurred behind the main building, when Lily accidently left her pack of cigarettes inside, and finally managed to ask him for one.

He frowned, seriously considered not giving her one, but acquiesced finally, handing a cigarette over.

"Thanks," she muttered, lighting it with her wand. She nearly gagged as she took a drag though. "Fuck. I should have known you'd smoke cloves."

"If you don't want it, then give it here," he bit off a rude epithet, and in turn she bit back her own retort as she greedily smoked. The rest of the break was spent smoking, and staring at opposites directions.

* * *

It was her brother that sparked the next actual conversation they had, although he was not there in person.

She walked up to him, (she triple checked to make sure she had a pack of smokes before she went to join him out back of the building), and handed him a letter. "From Albus, here."

Scorpius paused before he lit up, frowning at the letter. "Why didn't he send his owl?"

Lily paused a moment—she actually liked Adder. "He died last week," she said finally. "Al's been broke up about it since."

Scorpius looked startled. "Adder was—Adder was a young bird, what on earth happened to him?"

Lily sighed, taking out a cigarette. "We think he might have gotten into some rat poisoning. Can't figure how it happened though, since no one around where we live keeps rat poisoning."

Scorpius finally tore his attention away from her when he realized that's all she was going to say on the subject, and opened his letter. After a bit, Lily was startled when Scorpius let out a laugh that was more of a bark. He seemed a bit shocked when he suddenly remembered she was there too. Quickly, he finished his letter and cigarette, and then fled back inside.

No matter. Lily had seen enough anyway.

Conversations were much easier after that.

* * *

"Why the bloody hell are you so hell bent on becoming a healer anyway?" she asked finally. He had nearly bled a patient out trying to heal a wound too slow and messily. Afterwards, he shook like a leaf, and the only thing that kept her from not asking, out of kindness, was her maddening curiosity.

Surprisingly, he answered. "It was either stagnate or die."

Lily mulled it over—she knew enough of psychology to get what he meant; either live your life or don't. "Still, why healing? You and I both know you don't have the drive to keep going much longer."

Rather than blow up at her like she half expected, he let out a bark of self deprecating laughter. "Call me being a Slytherin through and through," he paused for a moment, glancing nervously at her before he continued. "My father…will always be known as a Death Eater. He could donate the Malfoy fortune to the best charities, and no one would ever let that stigma go." He crushed his cigarette under his heel. "Or me either."

Lily watched as he got up to leave; before he when back inside, she reached up, and snagged his wrist. "There's other ways to redeem your family name," she tried quietly.

He eyed her hand warily before gently brushing it off. "The thing is, I shouldn't have to do so in the first place," he sighed, going in.

Lily glared at the ground as she finished her cigarette. Finally she sighed, and crushed hers too before going inside.

* * *

The next real conversation they had was the day he forgot his smokes for once. She gave him one, and looked at the clouds for awhile. "If you weren't trying to be a healer, what would you like to be?"

Scorpius looked at her before considering the rocks in the dirt. "A radio host."

She smiled. "You always did a good job when you commentated on the Quidditch matches."

He looked surprised and touched. "Yeah, well," he said after a moment. "It's not like any of the big radio companies would hire me anyway."

She paused before she spoke. "My uncle's best friends with PW radio's owner."

Scorpius went very still. "Lee Jordan?" His voice was nearly reverent, making Lily squirm.

"Uncle George always has been my favourite uncle." It was true; when she was three and a half she wandered up to him, and said as much. He'd been delighted, and ever since then he favored her over many of his other nieces and nephews. "He'd talk to Lee Jordan if I-"

"That's alright," Scorpius said quickly, much to her agitation. "I'm…fine where I am."

Lily glared at him. "You're '_fine'_ alright—you do a _fine_ job of making yourself miserable, you do." He looked furious, so she got up, and crushed her half gone cigarette out. She paused before she shut the door, glancing back at him. "At least think about my suggestion, will you, Malfoy?"

Scorpius stewed so long, he was nearly late.

* * *

It was awhile before they had another decent conversation after that; they'd start out well, and then degenerate into screaming matches. That didn't stop them from crouching down together behind the building, smoking like a pair of chimneys.

After one particular bad day, they ended up arguing anyway.

"You're the worst healer I've ever seen," she finally snapped. "It'll be a miracle you don't kill someone your first week." It was a low blow, but Lily tired of pussyfooting around it.

The look on his face was enough to shame her though. Finally, he shouted. "Piss off, Potter—what the hell do you know about me anyway?"

She held up her hand, and began ticking off points on her fingers. "Besides knowing you're a horrible healer, I know blood makes you queasy. I know you better at making potions than wand work. I know you prefer to work with babies. I know you like cloves because you like listening to it crackle-" He looked startled to hear that one. "You prefer your coffee black—which is disgusting, and I don't know how you do it. I know you favour blue, particularly royal. I know you like muggle movies—cause of your aunt. I know you dote on your sister because you're so much older than her." He was looking half panicked now, and she was nearly too. "I know you floo here each morning because you hate appariting. You're my brother's best friend, and I _**know**_ you'd rather be a radio host than a healer any day!"

They both paused, looking at each other in abject terror. How the _hell_ did she know all that?

She stood suddenly, dropping her cigarette. She didn't bother to crush it out as she moved to the door, fleeing. She paused only a moment before she ran inside. "And I know you're a bloody idiot."

Scorpius looked down at her cigarette for a long before reaching out to crush it properly. "…at least I'm not the only idiot around here," he muttered.

She had left off the part where he thought she looked better with her hair down, or that he knew exactly how many freckles were on her face, or that she was the only person at the hospital that would look at him, and not see his father.

She didn't mention he thought he might fancy her.

"Bugger," he said softly before crushing out his cigarette too.

* * *

Three weeks later, he wandered up to her in the hall, because it was too frigid to go outside to smoke, and asked her to speak to her uncle for help getting him a job at the radio station.

Lily's relieved smile was almost worth it.


	20. Personal

**Prompt: "Personal"**

* * *

Scorpius cringed under his covers, burrowing deeper into the blanket as his room lit up brightly for a moment before thunder rattled his windows. He bit his lip, (_I mustn't be afraid, I mustn't be afraid,)_ because if he got up out of bed, he'd look like a coward. Of course, his mother wouldn't say that; no, she would pet his head gently, and shush him until her soothing noises became lullabies for him to drift off too. His father probably wouldn't have said it either, but he would frown, and quietly remind Scorpius that he was six now, and that honestly thunder couldn't hurt him.

And he knew it couldn't; but it was so _loud._

"_Here's what you do_," his father told him once. "_Wait for the lightning to strike, then count each second until the thunder booms. If you can count further and further each time that means the storm's going away."_

Scorpius waited for another flash of light before trying to count. He barely got past three before it struck. Finally, he gave up, and hopped out of bed, tossing the bedding aside as he ran for his door. He rushed into the hallway, heading for the sitting room, where his father would still be up, finishing some paperwork.

He hesitated a long time before he finally knocked softly at the door, so quiet he imagined if he ran back to his bed, his father will never know it was him.

"Come in," his father called; Scorpius gulped, and opened the door, peeking in. His father blinked at him, one hand holding a pen, the other a glass of cognac, sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace, signing papers. "What are you still doing up?"

Scorpius shuffled in, his tongue stuck to the roof of his parched mouth. Draco raised a brow, and Scorpius finally found his voice. "I tried counting," he begins. "But I can't get any higher than three." To emphasize his point, there was a crack of thunder, making him jump.

Draco frowned, looking up at the ceiling, listening to the storm. "The storm's overhead then. Give it time, and it will blow over soon."

Scorpius nodded, and scuffed his toe against the rug.

"…why don't you sit here, and we'll wait for it to blow over together?" Draco suggested, and Scorpius buried his face in his father's side in an instant. Draco sat his pen and drink aside, and pulled his son closer, leaving his arm around his child protectively. His father was not as great at comforting as his mother, but Scorpius was glad to be there, safe with his father. His father, he thought then, was surely the bravest man ever, to sit there, and comfort _him_ while such a violent storm brewed overhead.

Draco glanced down at him. "It'll be a while yet—try closing your eyes for awhile."

Scorpius nodded, already tired. For a long time, he laid against his father side while Draco rubbed, and patted his back during the worst of the thunderclaps. "Dad," he started after one particular loud crack, "how are you so-" he paused at saying 'brave', because Draco had always said it was a foolish Gryffindor trait. "-so calm?"

Draco smiled wryly, perhaps he knew exactly what his son had started to say, but he made no comment on it. "One day, when you have children of your own, you'll be 'calm' too."

Scorpius looked up at him with wide eyes, mainly because he never pondered such a future before. "…I'll probably never be as brave as you though."

Draco made a noncommittal noise. "You'll do well," he said, before smirking down at him. "You're my son after all—I promise, you'll learn."

Years later, Scorpius holds the little bundle Lily handed him, and prays he can remember all the little lessons his father taught him. But Lily makes a soothing noise, and brushes his hair out of his eyes, and for a moment he looks at her then down at their child, and thinks _For you, I think I can be brave enough._


	21. Hazard

Definitely AU from the others—by the by, **Albus is in Slytherin for this chapter**! That'll help explain a bit later on.

* * *

**Prompt: "Hazard"**

No one was ever sure who gave James, Albus, and Fred the idea for "the Greatest Prank EVER", (Lily would guess Roxanne), but suffice to say, no one else saw it coming. Certainly the teachers didn't, because if they had, they would have never let the three boys flood every classroom in the entire school with unmelting snow. At least Professor Flitwick was impressed by the charms they used—that didn't stop them from being forced to shovel out the snow, the muggle way even, for punishment though.

But many of the students didn't mind at all—with all the class rooms blocked, (and many a teacher's class notes lost within), there was little the teachers could do, but declare a snow day. In the middle of a rather hot week in April.

Lily didn't mind, neither did Hugo, who sportingly joined Rose and their brothers and/or cousins as they worked to shovel the snow out the windows.

"You know, I'd like to know how long this took you guys to cook up," Lily mused, transfiguring a soggy notebook into a bowl to scope out some of the snow with. "Is this edible by the way?"

"Sure," James answered before dumping a large shovelful out the window. "S'nothing wrong with it. I'm not sure if it'd digest well though, not melting and all."

Lily considered it for a minute then chucked the snow out the window too. Why risk the chance?

"You know," Albus grumbled. "You could do something useful."

Hugo grinned, hopping up on a desk that Rose had finished drying the snow off of. "Like how?"

"Grab a bloody shovel, what do you think?" Albus huffed.

"I believe the saying goes 'you did the crime, now do the time'?" Rose smirked, leaning up next to her brother as Lily joined them.

"Where did you hear that?" James asked curiously (he and Fred were in much better moods then Albus).

"A book," Rose answered unsurprisingly.

"Well, I say a little shovelling is worth it. Did you see the look on Professor Patil's face when that avalanche fell out of her room onto her?" Fred snickered.

"You're lucky she didn't get hurt," Rose quipped.

"A little snow never hurt anyone," Albus insisted.

"How do you guys plan to dig out all the rooms anyway?" Lily asked, grabbing some more snow with her bowl to dump.

"It'll melt at midnight," Albus explained. "I tried to tell Professor Sprout that, but she said a little good old fashioned shovelling wouldn't kill us."

Lily couldn't help but to agree with the headmistress—it might be the only thing that would teach them a lesson.

"I," Fred announced, setting his shovel aside for a moment, "am famished."

"When is that little menace of a friend of yours coming, Al?" James asked, also pausing. "You said he'd have lunch brought up to us in a bit."

"You guys aren't making him carry a bunch of food up to you by himself, are you?" Lily scowled.

"Roxy and Louis are helping him," Rose told her calmly, then frowned. "Or, at least they were supposed to." The others paused uneasily at the severe look on her face—for Roxanne and Louis's sakes, they had better be helping.

Turns out they didn't have to wait long before Scorpius, (and Roxanne and Louis), brought them some food, nicked from the kitchens. James and Scorpius had their customary stand-off moment before Lily pointedly interrupted them by coughing. Still glaring at her eldest brother, Scorpius joined her at her side before helping hand out the food.

"We tried to get as much as we could," Louis remarked, quite cheerful for his bit of mischief making.

"And we tried for a good variety," Roxanne added, handing out a thermos of warm soup.

After a brief lunch—they couldn't dally long since Professor Longbottom and Hagrid repeatedly checked in on them to make sure they were still working. They managed to clear out two and a half class rooms before their professors finally took pity on them, and called it time served. James, Albus, and Fred complained all the way to the Hospital Wing about the throbbing sores and welts they now had on their hands.

"I don't suppose that's really going to stop them though," Lily mused to Scorpius as they walked down to the where the Slytherin dungeon and Hufflepuff cellar were, leaving Rose to go to the Ravenclaw tower, and Hugo and Roxanne to the Gryffindor tower.

"Detention's never stopped them before," Scorpius agreed. "Although, I must admit, I did like a day off."

"You know," Lily began, stopping in the middle of a hallway, "there's just one thing that bothers me about this."

Scorpius paused, looking back to his girlfriend. "And what's that?"

Lily frowned. "What's going to happen to the snow when it all melts?"

"…it'll probably just vanish." He grinned at her. "I mean, at least I hope Albus at least is smart enough to realize that all the water would just end up with us in the dungeons."

Lily giggled. "It would serve him right, if all his stuff got soaked."

They two shared a chuckle as they headed for the staircase leading downwards. As they went, they both paused.

"Do you hear that?" Scorpius asked, frowning as they looked around.

"It sounds…like a roar," Lily commented as she tried to pinpoint the noise.

"Or maybe even…" Scorpius went pale as they looked down the hall. "Rushing water."

Every classroom's door in the hall they were in began to bulge outward then explode, releasing waves of water out at them. They both screamed and ran as the water rushed towards them. Soon, water from the upper floors joined the rush, and they were engulfed.

Lily grabbed a hold of Scorpius's hand as they were pulled along. Thankfully, the water spread out as the corridor opened into the stair, and slowed enough for them to grab onto the banister. Both of them spluttered as the water rushed past them. As they clung to the banister, both watch with wide eyes as Peeves, riding a desk like an impromptu surf board, went down the cascades of water, cackling madly. Far below them, they heard shrieks rising up undoubtedly from the Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms.

"I," Scorpius coughed as the water slowed. "Am going to kill your brother!"

"Fine! I'll just kill the other one myself," Lily seethed.


	22. Ideal

I liked the idea of Scorpius being a radio DJ, I had to bring it back.

"It Sucks" by the way, is by the Butterbeer Experience and is a WRock song for anyone who's ever been sorted into Hufflepuff, and it is awesome. I think Lily would love it if she were real.

**Prompt: "Ideal"**

* * *

In Lily's opinion, there was only one way to spend a snowy day well: build a snowman, have a little snowball fight, warm yourself back up with a roaring fire, and then spend the evening with a hot chocolate, fuzzy blanket, and her husband as they watched the snow falling outside the window. For Lily, she couldn't help but feel that there was no better way to spend a snowy day.

Not that she got to spend _this_ snowy day doing any of that—she'd left home at a god awful hour from working the night shift at the hospital, and she barely got to spend any time with Scorpius before he disappeared to the radio station. She had slept through most of the time they could have spent together, and now she could only glower over her cup at hot chocolate at the perfectly clear night outside her window.

And her fuzzy blanket was in the wash.

"Stupid dog," she grumbled, and then winced guiltily as said dog rested his head on her lap. It wasn't like he'd _meant_ to get sick on it. "Sorry, Paddy."

The giant Labrador gave her a doggy grin as he panted. Feeling a bit lonesome and indulgent, she panted the cushion next to her, signalling to him to hop up, which was what he had been waiting for. He quickly plopped down next to her, resting his head on her lap again, content with the world.

"I wish I was so easily pleased," she chuckled, patting his head. Down the hall, the clock struck the hour, catching Lily's attention. "Hey, daddy should be on the radio now, Paddy." She grinned down at the big dog. "Do you want to hear daddy at work?"

He dragged his tongue across her lap, leaving a large wet mark.

"I'll take that as a yes," she snorted, tapping her wand against her lap to try off the dog slobber, then pointed her wand at the wireless. It switched on in the middle of a song, and Lily put her wand away as she waited for Scorpius to come on.

After a few minutes however, Lily began to glare at the wireless.

_Just how long is this song anyway?_ She frowned, but even as she thought it, the song abruptly ended. And then led straight into a new song.

"The world's out to get me, Paddy," she grumbled. He blinked solemnly up at her, and she patted his head.

Finally, finally, the song ended, and she perked up as she heard her husband's voice came out over the line. Even Paddy perked up as he recognized the master's voice.

"This PW Wireless, and I'm Scorpius. Now, before I put the next few songs on, I have got to tell you people a story." Lily fidgeted, trying to sink a little deeper into the corner of the couch, much to Paddy's displeasure. "As I tried to get ready for work, Marlene—our girl from the front desk, who we get to do weather? You all know Marlene. Well, the poor girl, right before I turn on the mic, she comes running in, screaming at me to wait." In the background, there was a feminine whine, undoubtedly Marlene protesting him telling the story. "Oh, come on, you knew I wasn't going to let this go. Well, Marlene comes running in, but you see, she's wearing this impossibly tall heels—by the way, how tall are those things?"

Marlene said something the mic couldn't catch.

"Lord. They're like nine centimetres tall." Marlene let out a sullen cry. "They are too—you could use those to kill someone. Anyway, Marlene comes running in on these shoes. Now, _apparently_ Marlene can't read-"

There was a faint shout of "I can too!"

"-because she didn't happen to look down to see the sign saying 'slippery'. They just waxed the floors, so we've all been running and sliding around in here all day. Well, Marlene comes running, and the next thing I see, she's shooting across the floor on her backside, and runs smack dab into my legs."

Lily winced in sympathy, and Paddy wagged his tail a bit, only noting the amusement in his master's voice.

"She takes my legs straight out from under me, so now I'm on the floor too. The floor's too waxed for either of us to get up, so the best I can do is put the song that's playing on a loop as we try to pick ourselves up." Well, that explains why the song seemed to never end. "While I won't get into it, yet it was pretty pathetic. So, as we finally both get up, I had to ask, 'what was so important you had to knock us both down?' Marlene, you want to tell the listeners what was so important?"

There was a muffled reply.

"You'll have to speak up."

"I said because I spilled coffee all over my lap," she sniffed.

"So, it's safe to say you're having a pretty bad day."

"Yes."

Lily made a sympathetic noise that made Paddy look at her funny.

"Alright, so out of sympathy, Marlene, why don't you pick the next song? How about something to cheer—and however else is having a bad day—up?"

"…I can I hear "It Sucks" then?" she sighed.

"Absolutely. Okay, listeners, here's "It Sucks"—hopefully, it'll make your day a little better too."

Lily sighed. "Poor Marlene, that girl's getting in trouble," she mused to Paddy who huffed in agreement. "I'll send her something good for Christmas this year. Maybe a big batch of those cookies she likes, eh?"

She patted his head once more, and then glanced upward, back out the window. To her delight, snow began to fall lazily in the inky darkness.

Today wasn't the way Lily liked to spend snowy days, but as she sipped her hot chocolate, petted Paddy, watched the snow fall, and listened to her husband's teasing voice over the wireless, she mused there were worse ways to spend the day.


	23. Supervise

Remember in the third movie, when Harry looks in one of the crystal balls and sees Sirius? A plot bunny crept up on me, demanding to write about that. This isn't quite that bunny (it could become an Astoria fic though!) but I wanted to get some use out of it for this.

Tis a long chapter, to make up for missing last week's.

**Prompt: "Supervise"**

**

* * *

**

Since long before he was born, Scorpius' parents ran the shop they inherited from grandfather Zargeus, so nearly all his life, he grew up wandering around the shop. It was fact that nearly everyone with Greengrass blood had some talent for a specified form of divination—Astoria was particularly good with reading auras, Daphne with tarot cards, Zargeus with retrocognition, and Semele, Astoria's mother, had an unusual gift for the Chinese _Bazi_ ever since she had lived briefly in Taiwan when she was younger. Usually, someone was only "allowed" to marry into the family if they had their own talent—Draco was welcomed warmly since he knew a bit of palmistry (actually, Astoria taught him so her parents wouldn't give him a hard time; he'd since forgotten most of art), and Scorpius' former uncle had prophetic dreams.

Scorpius, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any talent of his own. Semele had said so when she once read his fortune, Daphne admitted as much when she tried to use her cards, and even Astoria had agreed. Since he had no gift of his own, the family had decided that after Astoria and Draco gave up the shop, it would go instead to Menthe, Daphne's daughter, who shockingly good with tea leaves.

"I suppose you take after my side too much for it," Draco had said as he tried to comfort him once. "Try not to worry about it—you're just meant for something else is all. Perhaps quidditch," his father suggested brightly.

Astoria had snorted at that. "Well, he certainly wouldn't get that for me."

Still, until he found out whatever he was meant for, he could only sigh longingly at the many books and divination devices in the shop. Not that he had time to be wistful long when he was there, since usually one of his parents quickly found something to do to keep him busy. If his mother was working the register, he would either help stock books or unbreakable items, or he might help a customer find whatever it was his mother would suggest for them. If it was his father, he would end up helping him doing the accounting, which wasn't too bad since Draco would usually have candy and treats to snack on while they work. On the rare days he would work with his aunt Daphne and his cousin Menthe, they usually didn't sell a thing and took many breaks at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

Today, however, Scorpius was with Astoria, which meant stocking the shelves. He'd finished in record time before joining his mother behind the counter. Astoria smiled gratefully, and used her wand to draw a chair from mid air so he could sit. To his delight it was a stool that spun, so for the next few minutes he amused himself by spinning until he nearly tipped off. "That's enough of that I think," she said mildly, but he heard the amusement in it, so he wasn't worried as she helped him sit back up.

"Can we get ice cream for lunch?" he asked, despite his churning stomach protesting the very thought.

Astoria raised a brow. "We'll see."

Scorpius pouted—"maybe" meant yes, "we'll see" usually meant no. Maybe if he could find some way to be helpful, he could talk her into it. He hunkered down on his stool, and began to plot quietly, ignoring the chime as the door opened and his mother greeting the guest.

"This is a surprise, Mr. Potter," he heard her disinterestedly. "You haven't come to finally replace that crystal ball I sold you, what, fifteen, sixteen years ago?"

"Fifteen, and no—although, not for lack of James and Albus try to bust it by letting it bounce down the stairs."

"I only did that twice!"

"My father will be pleased to see that his charm to make it unbreakable is still working."

"What charm _did_ he use? I could use it so I'll stop having to replace the dishes."

"I said I didn't mean to break those!"

Scorpius gave up his plotting to finally look up at the customers—it was a family of four, a father, two sons, and a young daughter. The younger son was his age, which caught Scorpius' interest for a bit. Both boys took heavily after their father, the younger one even more so than his brother, but the girl had fiery red hair and brown eyes. She did share a resemblance to her father though, Scorpius supposed, the nose and chin were the same. Scorpius rubbed his own chin thoughtfully—everyone said he took after his father, although he wished he had inherited his mother's "dreamy" far away blue eyes instead of his father's grey ones. _Oh well, just another way I take after Dad._

They were talking again, he realized—he'd stopped listening for a moment, but he quickly tuned back in.

"-James was thinking of taking Divination this year. I thought we might drop in and see if he finds something that could help him decide," Mr. Potter finished.

His mother studied the older boy—James—for a moment before shaking her head. "Don't bother signing up—he'd have more luck in astronomy. There's some good star maps in the back that show the night sky on whatever night you choose from whatever spot on the earth." Ignoring the shocked boy's protests, she turned to the other Potter son, to Mr. Potter's mixed amusement. "You, on the other hand, I suggest having a peek at the books on tarot cards, second aisle, third shelf in on the right. There's some good beginner books if you ever get interested in Divination." The boy's eyes went very round, and he turned to look up with a questioning but hopeful look to his father.

"If you find something you like, we'll call it an earlier birthday present," Mr. Potter smiled at his son. The boy—Scorpius couldn't remember the names Mr. Potter had said earlier—grinned and gave his brother a smug look.

"Would I find anything good?" the fidgeting girl asked anxiously. Scorpius was half surprised she wasn't jumping up and down impatiently as the others talked.

His mother gazed at her for a moment. "…you ever tried looking at that crystal ball I sold your father?"

Lily's eyes grew round with shock before nodding slowly.

"Ever see stop waiting to see something before really _seeing_ something in there?"

James made a face. "What?" His brother looked confused as well, but Lily's face went a bit pale.

"…bit of mist—I thought my eyes were getting watery!" she said defensively as her brothers turned to stare at her. Obviously, they had tried before to no avail.

"Was the weather foggy afterward?" the second oldest asked like a reporter hot on the trail of some story.

Lily grimaced. "I don't remember—it was a couple years ago. I forgot about it."

"Try looking again sometime," his mother advised before turning back to Mr. Potter who looked both bemused and amused. "There's a sale this week for students going to Hogwarts. Scorpius can help you look around if you want."

Mr. Potter's lips quirked upward. "That would be useful, thanks."

Astoria turned to her son. "Go take them to the books for the tarot cards, then take them to the star maps, will you, dear?"

Scorpius—recognizing a chance to be helpful and earn his ice cream—nodded, and hopped down off his stool. He walked to the other side of the counter, and nodded politely to them. Mr. Potter nodded back, and little Lily actually bowed a bit, obviously not quite sure what to do. He cracked a smile of his own at her, but quickly turned to lead them to the aisle his mother had mentioned. He led them to the tarot card books, grabbing a book closer to the bottom of the shelf before presenting it to the younger brother. "Aunt Daphne said this was the best for a beginner—it doesn't come with a deck like the others, but it's cheaper and easier to understand than the others." He pointed to a deck that sat further down the shelf, smiling a bit cheekily. "And those decks last longer; they're charmed not to bend or tear—but that one there has the best designs."

The boy eagerly handed the book to his father while he moved to look at the cards in the deck Scorpius had pointed to. Mr. Potter nodded to James. "Why don't you go with him, and I'll stay here with Albus."

James frowned. "If I get something, can we call it a _late_ birthday present?"

Mr. Potter smiled crookedly. "We'll just say they're going-away presents then."

James smirked. "Nice. Thanks, dad," he said, turning to Scorpius. "Lead on to the maps then, I guess."

Scorpius nodded and began to walk to the back of the shop, James following a few steps behind. Since the shop wasn't terribly big, it was a very short walk. He searched for a moment among the maps and charts before finding the one his mother had mentioned. He opened it up to show it to James. "It'll show you today's sky from here, but say you wanted to see what it was like…ah, three years ago in…Sydney, Australia," he suggested randomly, before pulling out his new wand (it took him two weeks to convince his parents to let him get his early and he seized on any chance he'd get to use it), and tapping the map. "So you'd say, 'July 30th, 2014, Sydney, Australia'—and viola!"

"Wicked," James grinned, watching the stars spin backward and tilt before finally slowing. At the bottom of the map, the date, location, and also the current time—5:43 pm—appeared. "Hey, look, Lily—Orion!"

"Where?"

Scorpius blinked and looked to James' side—Lily stood, peering at the map as well now. "Oh, see if you can find Sirius!"

Before her brother could point to the bright star near Orion, letters appeared over the Dog Star. "Brilliant," James said approvingly. "I wonder if the _Marauder's Map_ works like this…"

Scorpius frowned. "The what?"

Both of them looked up as if surprised to see he was still there. "Err—it's nothing. Just an old map my dad has."

Scorpius decided not to ask—unhappy customers didn't buy things. He watched as James randomly called out names of stars and constellations, wondering if his work would be enough to convince Astoria he deserved an ice cream.

"Excuse me?"

Scorpius looked to Lily, who was fidgeting again now that her brother was absorbed in studying the map. He waited for her to speak before realizing she was waiting for him to say something first. "Yes?"

"Would there be any…any good books for looking at crystal balls then?" she asked, looking a bit pink.

Scorpius paused to consider it. "Looking at a crystal—it's really something that you can't learn from a book. I think you're just supposed to keep staring until you get the hang of it," he admitted, trying to remember what his grandmother had explained to him once. "I—hold on, I think there might be a book…" he trailed off, hurrying around the corner to another aisle. It was hard to try and recall which one Semele had pointed to when she spoke about it a few years ago, but Scorpius remembered a few of the covers she pointed to. Finally, he recognized one—it was kind of hard not, the book had a flashy cover—that he was sure his grandmother had recommended. He grabbed it and turned to hurry back to James and Lily, only to find she had decided to follow him like she had her brother earlier. It spooked him a bit to find her standing so close behind him, but she jumped too, so maybe he'd startled her as well. Reminding himself again that unhappy customers weren't paying customers, he tried not to hold it against her.

"This one," he began, after his pulse slowed down a bit. "My grandmother said it was a good one once—it could be useful."

What happened next made his heart race a bit again—suddenly, her whole face lit up, like she'd been presented a diamond necklace, not a slightly dusty book (he'd probably have to dust again soon). She took the book eagerly from him, running one hand reverently over the cover before opening it. "I always wondered if I really saw something in that crystal, and now…" she didn't finish, instead drinking in the sight of the open book as she flipped idly through the pages.

Scorpius may have only been eleven, but looking at her, he felt a bit older, a bit wiser for having found something to make her so happy. Or maybe she just seemed younger in comparison, he wasn't sure. Still he felt a thrill of pride as delight danced over her features.

"Lily! James! C'mon, your mum's going to hex me if we don't get back to the Leaky Cauldron soon," shouted Mr. Potter, making Scorpius and Lily jump. Lily blushed darkly, clutching the book to her chest.

"Thanks," she murmured, before going on to the tips of her toes to press a soft kiss to his cheek. Now it was his turn to turn flaming red, but at least she didn't get a chance to see as she hurried to join her father at the cash register.

Scorpius waited until he heard the faint chime of the door as they left before he dared join his mother at the counter. When he did, she frowned, reaching out to place her cool hands on his cheek then her wrist on his forehead. "Are you okay, dear? You're all _red_."

He blinked and realized that there was his chance. "It's too hot," he complained.

Astoria raised a brow. The shop was significantly cooler inside than out in the street—neither Astoria nor Draco liked the shop to be too hot, and everyone else in the family agreed anyway. Still, she humored him and patted his cheek. "Well, I suppose an ice cream would be sufficient to cool you down?"

He tried not to smirk too broadly. "Yeah, I think it'd do."

Her lips quirked upward. She reached into her purse and handed him some money. "Go get me some strawberry ice cream, will you? There should be enough there for the two of us."

"Yes, mum," he answered eagerly, taking the money. "Be back in a bit," he shouted as he ran out of the shop. She waved, and he raced down the street.

As he stood in line, he decided today had turned out to be a good day. Pressing his hand gently to his cheek, remembering Lily's thin but soft lips, he decided it had been a _very_ good day.


	24. Broadcast

**Prompt: "Broadcast"**

* * *

"Dad, help!"

Scorpius pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rigel, do you mind telling me how the-" Scorpius bit his lip to keep from cursing as his daughter gazed up at him curiously. "Just how did you get stuck up there anyway?"

"I'm gonna fall," his son sobbed.

He looked to Antares. "You didn't trick him, did you?" he asked suspiciously.

His daughter scrunched her face up, and shook her head vigorously. "He was stuck when I got here."

Scorpius sighed. "I told you to watch him."

"Mama said _you_ were supposed to," Antares shot back, coolly. He had to give her credit—Antares wasn't one to panic.

_Must have gotten that from her mother,_ Scorpius decided as he turned back to his son. "Rigel, this is exactly why you've been told to not climb this tree."

"Dad-_dy!_" Rigel yelled louder, as if to make sure _everyone_ knew how upset he was. Not that there was anyone else this far in back of the Malfoy Manor to hear.

"Me, your mother, and your grandparents have repeatedly told you to not climb this tree. And what do you do?"

"He climbs it," Antares answered helpfully.

"Yes, _exactly_. Now, Rigel," he called up to his son who tried to pronounce his hysterics even more. "I want you to promise never to do this again. Otherwise, you'll just have to learn how to climb back down yourself. Understand?"

Rigel blubbered on, milking it for all it was worth before he gave in and nodded.

"Good. Now, _Wingardium Leviosa,"_ Scorpius said, and quickly was able to lower his son back down after he moved him away from the tree branches. "Now that that's all done, let's just keep this between us three, okay?" he started to say to his children.

"And what, cut me out of the fun?"

"Hi, mama!" Antares said gleefully, waving to her mother. Rigel and Scorpius both went pale as she wandered over to them, Astoria and Draco following a little after her. Antares abandoned her father's side to run over and giver her mother a hug. After hugging her daughter, Lily handed Antares over to Draco, who slipped her an acid pop.

"Hello, Lils," Scorpius tried with a pinched smile.

Lily gave him a merciless grin in return before she kissed his cheek. "We'll talk later about this," she promised him softly.

Scorpius swallowed nervously as Lily turned to their son to scold him for disobeying the rules. He tried to look to his father for help, but Draco merely gave him a pitying look before Astoria caught it, which he quickly covered by turning to dote on his granddaughter.

Scorpius sighed and silently resigned himself to being yelled at later.


	25. Damage

Warnings! Bondage kink; inspired by a real life story.

Also, a shout-out to a previous chapter—can you guess which one?

**Prompt: "Damage"**

* * *

Lily rarely skipped a night of drinking with her friends and family, but tonight she found herself sorely tempted. Not that Roxanne, Hugo, or Wren—_Wren doesn't even like to drink!_ Lily's mind tried to protest—were going to let her. So as soon as her shift was over at the hospital, Lily found that both of her arms had been latched onto by a pair of grinning cousins. Even Wren was smiling mischievously—well, as mischievously as Wren could smile—as they pulled her to the fireplace.

"Tell us everything," Roxanne demanded as they arrived in the pub. Hugo and Wren joined them after a moment helping Roxanne shove Lily to the bar.

"You're making a big fuss over nothing," Lily insisted as Hugo ordered them drinks. "Really, it was only a little accident, Scorpius is fine now-"

Hugo grunted as Roxanne giggled. "I should hope so."

"Details, Lils," Roxanne demanded, tugging on her arm.

Lily groaned and wondered if ducking and hiding under the bar would just draw more attention. "Honestly, guys, you've probably already heard the whole story by now…at least let me get my drink first…"

"No stalling," Hugo retorted.

"Second-hand information is rarely as truthful," Wren added taking a sip of her pint as the drinks arrived.

"Besides, any good reporter knows, if you want to get to the bottom of things, you have to go to the source."

Lily flinched and turned to look as Albus grinningly joined them at the bar.

"Not you too," she whined.

Albus snickered. "Hey, I believe I have right to know what happens to one of my best mates. As your brother, there are somethings I just rather not know, but in this case, I believe an exception is in order."

"Here here," Hugo crowed, raising a glass to him.

"Out with it," Roxanne shoved her shoulder playfully. "Details!"

Lily sighed.

* * *

Lily and Scorpius may not have been Gryffindors, but didn't mean they weren't the "adventurous" type. Actually, it was Lily's idea in the first place—one of her patients had been very talkative once, explaining how much fun a little bondage could be. They both agreed it sounded interesting—besides Lily was a Medi-Witch, if something did happen she'd be able to fix either of them up if there was an accident.

Or so they thought.

To be fair, it was fun. There was a certain thrill Lily felt blindfolded and tied to the table while Scorpius had his own fun. They were both enjoying it, and Lily knew that Scoprius was reaching his brink as he started going harder and faster.

Neither could have foreseen Scorpius pulling back too far and then sliding out. All Lily knew was that out of nowhere something slammed into her thigh, Scorpius made a high gasp of pain, and then there was a loud thud.

"…Scorpius?" Lily tried. There was a loud moan in reply. Instantly, Lily shouted the agreed safe word and when he didn't untie her Lily began to grope for her wand that she laid next to her hand on that the off chance something did happen. Well, something had happened, and Lily quickly freed her one hand, ripped off the blind fold, then began to free herself. As she freed her feet, she warily looked over the side of the table, worried what had happened to her boyfriend.

Lily's jaw dropped.

* * *

Hugo was half laying across the bar, clinging to it with one hand as he beat his fist against the wood. Roxanne—and Lorcan, who'd also showed up to hear the tale—joined him, clutching her sides as she wheezed in laughter. Albus had covered his face with his hands—he'd gone pale, but Lily could see his shoulder shuddering as he tried not to laugh. Wren was smiling enigmatically at nothing, but Lily noticed her cheeks were stained pink.

"It's not funny," Lily grumbled. Albus lost what little control he had left and joined Hugo with banging his fist on the table as he roared with laughter. A chuckle escaped Wren's lips.

"That's not right!" Lorcan howled, laughing hysterically.

"45 degree angle? Really?" Hugo laughed. "God, that must have hurt."

"Oh, Jesus!" Albus snickered. "Oh, how bad did it swell?"

Lily gave up and downed her drink. "He could have put a stallion to shame."

Even Wren laughed at that one.

"How is he?" Albus asked, finally regaining his composure.

"He's resting at home now," Lily sighed. "They got the swelling down, and they…straightened him out-" Roxanne was hardly breathing at this point, instead making high raspy noises while everyone else howled again. "They said he couldn't do …anything for at least two weeks though."

"Oh—oh, that's gotta suck," Lorcan sniggered. "Even…?" He made a crude hand gesture to finish his question.

Lily grimaced. "Even that."

The men of the group groaned in sympathy.

"Hey, if you tell James that, maybe he'll finally try and visit your apartment again," Albus tried, grinning at her.

Lily covered her eyes with her hand and ordered another drink.

* * *

"You're late," Scorpius grumbled from the couch as she stumbled through the fireplace. "And drunk. They ambushed you already?"

Lily merely nodded, not bothering to brush off the ash as she fell into the easy chair across from him. "How you feeling?"

"Like hell. The potions they're making me take tastes like shit."

Lily smiled. "That's how you know it's good—can't have people liking the taste and getting hooked."

Scorpius mumbled something as he shifted on the cushions before wincing.

Lily frowned and joined him at the end of the couch, grabbing his feet so she could massage them.

"So…" he began, "how much did you tell them?"

Lily winced. "Not everything—if I didn't say anything though, they would have come up with weirder theories."

Scorpius groaned and put his hands over his face.

"Albus was there—he said he might come round to cheer you up," she tried.

"If he wants to cheer me up, he could have gotten me drunk," he grunted.

Lily frowned and put her hand on his knee, making him pull his hands away to glance at her properly. "I'm really sorry."

He frowned and looked away. "Not your fault."

"I still feel terrible."

He looked back to her and tried to manage a smile. "Make it up to me—in a few weeks."

She snickered. "I'll see if I can manage something special by then."

Scorpius was grinning but then suddenly frowned. "No more ropes this time."

She smiled and patted his knee. "No ropes," she promised.


	26. Arse

**Sorry for being so long with this chapter; I managed to muck up my foot about a month ago and it really ruined my creativity since I think best while doing some sort of physical activity. Also, I've been working on a new HP story which stalled on me, and I have another HP story swirling around my head.**

**Prompt: "Arse"**

* * *

Lily Potter had been best friends with Wren Frost since two months into their first year, when the two had bonded over an afternoon of kicking around a football and chatting about the sport—Albus and James preferred wizard sports, and were too old/cool to be seen playing muggle games with their little sister, but Wren was the perfect companion when it came to sports. Ever since then, Lily would liked to think that she was closer to Wren than Wren's own family—which wasn't that hard to imagine because Wren's mother had walked out on her and her father when she was three, not that her father was much warmer to his daughter before then. But still, Lily could honestly say Wren was probably a closer friend to her than Hugo.

So, Lily wasn't too surprised to find Wren sitting at her table, glaring down at the seam from where the table had broken—unfortunately when Lily was still on top of it, but that's another story—when she got home from her shift at the hospital. Scorpius merely shrugged, kissed her cheek, and dashed off to work since he was already late. Lily was left with a still glaring Wren, without a clue what to do.

"Good evening, Missus Lily," Wren greeted her with clipped tones after Lily sat across for nearly five minutes.

"'m not Missus just yet," Lily winced but tried to joke. She shifted uneasily when Wren shrugged and tried to speak again before another awkward silence bloomed again. "You're not mad at me, are you, Wren?"

"Not you, Miss Lily."

Lily breathed a sigh of relief quietly and watched in amusement as Wren cocked a brow at the table. Lily paused to think for a moment—Wren was over the moon about her job as historian, her favorite team was still in good standings, if her father had contacted her Wren would be more likely trying to uselessly fix the seam of the table with an absurd number of spells rather than glare at it, and if her boyfriend and-

Lily sat up. "Are you mad at Hugo?"

All of a sudden then tense air around Wren seemed to solidify and darken—Lily could have sworn a miniature thunder cloud was literally forming overhead.

"If I say yes, you'll tell him why I'm mad at him—which is exactly why I'm not with him now."

Lily's eyebrows went up. "Does he know you're mad at him?"

Wren's face went very dark. "He should."

Since she couldn't dispute it, Lily didn't floo Hugo to warn him about Wren, but she did transfigure the couch into a bed before she and Scorpius laid down for the night.

"She gonna be here all week?" Scorpius grunted into her shoulder.

Lily shrugged. "When Wren gets mad, she stays mad and she won't have a damn thing to do with whoever she's angry at until she's ready."

Scorpius muttered something. "Thank you for at least telling me why you're pissed when you are. A whole week. Really?"

Lily smiled. "You're welcome—and yes. _Really_."

"Bugger," Scorpius groaned. "Can't we get Hugo to come grovel or something?"

"Hugo? _Grovel?_ You'd have to shame him into it—for two weeks straight. Weasleys are too stubborn to just _grovel."_

"And you say Malfoys are bad," he snickered.

"Well, I had to have a basis for comparison, you see."

"Right."

"Good night, Scorp."

"Night, luv."

* * *

Turned out it only took a week for Hugo to come around to the flat and talk to Wren—and three visits to the bar where he bitched her, Rose, Roxanne, Louis, or Lorcan out—but when he did come, Lily wished desperately that they had gone back to their own flat to argue. Or at least not had the make-up sex in her living room.

"I hope our wedding pictures won't look too bad with my sockets empty, you know," Scorpius whined, as they brushed their teeth for the night. "Because I can never un-see that."

Lily giggled. "Well, 'if thine eye doth offend thee…'"

He rolled his eyes and shook his tooth brush at her, flecking her pyjama top with toothpaste. "I'll have you know, they were going at it doggy style on our new couch."

"OH, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT," Lily shouted, clapping her hands over her ears. "That's my cousin and best friend, you know, they're practically my siblings!"

"You and James can relate then," he huffed. "Oh, and he has a birthmark-"

"La la la la!" she tried to drown him out.

"-in the shape of a shamrock right on his-"

She jabbed him with her toothbrush a little too low for his comfort, making him yelp. She fled the bathroom as he tried to retaliate. "You deserved it!" she shouted over her shoulder, running around to the opposite side of the bed. He tried to follow, but she apparated to the other side, then he followed but she switched the side she was on. Finally she tried out and he managed to pin her to the bed before she could switch again, kissing her soundly while she giggled still.

"What say we skip the fight and go straight for the make-up sex?" he suggested, fingers drumming lightly against her ticklish sides.

She arched and ground against his hips in revenge. "You always did like hurrying to the good part."

"Well, there's a reason it's called the good-"

In the living room, there was the sound of the fire roaring up, then steps as someone got out of their fireplace. They shared a confused look.

"Did you shut the flue?" she whispered.

"Hadn't the chance," he answered.

"Wands out," she suggested and he got off of her. They both crept towards the door, confused by the sound of wood scraping against linoleum. They sidled up on either side of the door, Lily ticking off on her fingers when to open it. Scorpius flung it open and they both hazarded a look.

"Paul?"

Paul Flint, Scorpius' best friend, was sitting at their table, glaring at the seam where the table had broken before. He looked half drunk, half furious, and his eyes were bloodshot. On his hand, he twisted his engagement ring as he glared.

The two them sighed. "I'll start some tea," Lily suggested while Scorpius walked to his friend to find out what he and his girlfriend were arguing about now.


	27. Pavement

Warning for Lily's potty mouth in this chapter. Jesus, this chapter is long.

**Prompt: "Pavement"**

* * *

Lily Potter was having the Week From Hell; for the last month, she'd been planning a business trip—she'd been offered a chance to travel to Africa to help work in understaffed hospitals there. She knew how badly they could use any help, so she accepted after several long discussions with co-workers, family, and friends. Because of his work, Scorpius wouldn't be travelling with her, and because of her schedule, it looked extremely doubtable they would get to meet up a lot. That would be the only down point to the whole trip in Lily's mind. But, either way, at the end of the week, she would travel by multiple port keys to her destination and it would be another month until she came home.

Preparations for the trip had eaten up most of the week, a thousand little details springing out of the woodwork to keep her running about. First it was a problem with getting working visas, arguing with people about housing, and then her family and friends constantly dropping in on her just when she thought she could have a moment to breath. And she hadn't had a smoke in over a week—she had hoped that Scorpius would have noticed, but even he seem caught up in some project. She hadn't had a moment alone with him in for most of the week actually.

She pouted as she slipped her heels back on—performing rounds around the hospital was not something one did in stiletto shoes_. I'll just have to tell him then. If I can't get him to make an opening, I'll have to make one myself._ That wouldn't be too hard—they had champagne at the flat…somewhere. She could just pour him a glass, make a point to neglect to give herself one, and he'd ask about it, and then she'd have him. Mentally patting herself on the back, she turned and pulled on her coat as she headed for the door.

To her surprise and delight, as she walked towards the fireplace in the lobby, she found Scorpius waiting in one of the plastic chairs next to it. She called to him, hurrying as fast as her heels would let her as he stood up and grinned at her.

"Evening," he greeted her warmly before bending to kiss her cheek. "I forgot how uncomfortable these chairs are."

"Evening yourself," she grinned, linking her fingers behind his neck. "To what do I owe the visit?"

"Oh, what, I'm not allowed to pick you up from work?"

"Well, you see, it'd be rather unfortunate if you walked in on me and one of my many lovers, so no, you can't," she teased.

"I knew you were up to something," he snickered before they kissed each other. "C'mon then, let's go home."

"Sounds like a fabulous idea," Lily sighed. "My feet are killing me—oh, hey, do you remember where that bottle of champagne is?"

Scorpius paused as he grabbed a pinch of Floo powder. "It's in the back of the fridge—why?"

"Oh, just thinking I'd like to crack it open when we get home." _Finally, something goes right._ She'd just grab the bottle and some glasses as she took a shower and she'd have her chance.

He smiled and entered the fireplace as he tossed the powder.

She reached up for a pinch of her own powder, tossed it while she called out her address. She ducked out of the hearth, brushing the soot off her pants, already psyching herself up for confronting him.

And then she nearly jumped out of her skin when the all the lights suddenly came on and nearly everyone in her acquaintance—except those co-workers still at work from the hospital she noticed—jumped out from behind furniture and doorways, all screaming "Surprise!" All of the faces were grinning warmly, eagerly pushing forward to see her reaction.

She paused, her hands uselessly gripping and un-gripping into fists. _One thing to go right, is that so much to ask? One night alone with my husband, that's all I wanted._

She glanced to the side to see Scorpius looking puzzled at her.

She glared, turned on the spot and Apparated away.

* * *

"God FUCKING _dammit!"_

Lily took great satisfaction as she kicked the trash bin with all the force nearly two dozen years of football practice kicked in (she'd played ever since she was two when Harry had bought her a ball at the market one day while grocery shopping). It was so satisfying she kicked it again, and again, and again. Until finally it fell over and its contents spilled out; glaring at the litter, she kicked the bottom of the bin.

"Fuck. Just—fuck it," she grumbled, starting to pace.

For Apparation, one needed to picture a place clearly before teleporting—she nearly hadn't bothered to try and pick a place, but lucky her common sense had kicked in before she vanished. She randomly picked a street that wasn't terribly far from the flat—mainly because it'd throw everyone off. They were probably checking the hospital, or her favorite bars, or their own houses, expecting her to be hiding in places they wouldn't think of. She'd almost thought about going just to the roof, but that would have been a little _too_ close.

"Fuck," she groaned, letting herself sag against a nearby wall. "Fucking hell."

_They'll all think I lost my mind._

"Is it so much to ask for one night alone? Is it?" she the cloudy night sky. She sighed. "Merlin, what I'd give for a cigarette…"

To her surprise—well, she wasn't that shocked, but still—a hand offering a cigarette appeared in front of her face. Groaning, she looked to her side.

Rose smiled gently at her. "I believe this is what your looking for?"

Lily glanced between her cousin and the cigarette for a moment before taking it, although she didn't light up. Instead she let it rest in her hand against her thigh. "How mad is everyone?"

"Try confused—although I suspect your mother's going to have some choice words for you when you get back," Rose answered matter-of-factly, joining her cousin with leaning against the wall. "May I ask what prompted you to leave to come beat the piss out of a trash bin?"

Lily winced and looked guiltily at the busted in bin. "It offended me?"

"Glad to see you can defend yourself from trash receptacles then. I'll be able to sleep easier at night knowing that over in Africa I won't have to worry about you being helpless from them."

In spite of herself, Lily chuckled a tiny bit and then sighed. "I…I'm a bitch."

"Some of us might disagree."

Lily almost smiled but her muscles didn't seem to want to obey. "Well, I'd have to tell you that you're wrong."

"Perhaps we can debate that another day—the question is, why do you think you're a bitch?"

Lily avoided Rose's piercing gaze, letting her eyes fall to the toes of her shoes. "I just ran out on my own surprise farewell party. Isn't that enough—oh, god, that's why Scorpius has been so busy lately!" She groaned and slapped a hand to her forehead. "Merlin, I am _such_ a bitch."

"That's nice. Now, why did you walk out on the party? I'll have you know, I was planning on getting Albus so trashed he wouldn't notice taking pictures of him as he flirted outrageously with Menthe until she'd turn so red he ask her who hexed her face red again."

Lily stared at her cousin. "…why were you going to do that?"

"Counter blackmail. Now, why did you walk out?"

Lily almost started to insist on asking why Albus had blackmail on her, and then stopped. There was some things she just didn't want to know. "I—I…do you think I would sound completely selfish and bitchy if I said that I just wanted one night alone with Scorpius?" Rose cocked her head at her and suddenly Lily felt the overwhelming urge to explain everything—tactile Rose at least would be fair when judging her. Hell, it was one of the reasons everyone encouraged her dream of one day entering the Wizengamot. "One fucking night, that's all I wanted! We haven't had a chance to fucking talk in over a week, I'm leaving tomorrow, and I—I had a plan, you know. We were gonna come home, I would open a bottle of champagne and-" she froze.

Rose waited. "…and?"

Lily bit her lip. "I…I have something I wanted…to tell Scorpius before I left tomorrow."

Rose was perfectly blank. "You're pregnant, aren't you?"

Lily blanched. "I—fuck—is it that obvious?"

Her cousin shook her head. "No, but it explains some things. Some of the others were wondering if you were on your period, but looks like it's quite the opposite."

Lily ducked her head and tried to fight the blush raging on her face. "I—just wanted to tell him before I left. I've…been trying all week. I didn't want to not tell him, but…ah, fuck."

"Quite," Rose nodded, before turning her attention to the trash bin; she gave Lily a moment to collect her thoughts while she righted the bin, pulled out the dents, and then banished the litter back into it with her wand. "Do you know how far along you are?" Rose asked after she finished cleaning up the mess.

Lily frowned. "Five weeks, maybe six."

"Hmm," Rose hummed lightly, gazing up to the clouds. "Congratulations then. I won't say anything to anyone."

"Thanks," she murmured, smiling a bit. Then she too looked up to the clouds. "How did you find me anyway?"

"I didn't. Scorpius did."

Lily whipped her head around so fast her neck ached. "_What?"_

"He said he found you thrashing the trash bin, so he decided to get me to find out what was wrong."

Before she could stop herself, Lily laughed. "Merlin, that coward."

Rose smiled at her. "There's a reason why he was never put in Gryffindor."

Lily sighed. "So, he found you, and then went back to ask you to talk to me—he didn't tell anyone else where I was, did he?"

"Doubt it," Rose answered blandly. "He's hiding in your bedroom still, I'd guess."

Sheepishly, she reached for her wand and formed her patronus. "Find Scorpius and tell him 'Come back. We need to talk.'" Her golden eagle turned and flew in the direction of their apartment.

"I'll leave you two alone then," Rose said, straightening out before turning to her cousin. "Go easy on him, I'd prefer not to have come crying to me for the next month because he thought you left angry with him."

"He could try and bug Albus," Lily joked weakly.

"Albus will toss him out if he interrupts his and Menthe's time together."

"That's what you get for not having someone to use as an excuse," she giggled.

"I take after Uncle Charlie, I suppose," Rose chuckled. It was true; neither their uncle nor Rose would probably ever choose to get involved with others romantically. Neither was bothered by that at all, not in the least. Lily admired that strength it took to not need another person like she did.

Scorpius suddenly appeared down at the corner across the street. Rose waved once at him before turning back to Lily.

"Good night, Lily. I suppose the others and I'll see you tomorrow before you leave."

Lily winced. "Sorry about the no party thing."

"Make it up to everyone when you get back," Rose suggested then promptly disappeared.

After Rose disappeared, Lily's gaze fell onto Scorpius as he slowly made his way over, taking his time to approach her. It took a lot of nerve she rarely needed to continue meeting his stare as he finally came over, but she made herself keep looking.

"So," he began warily, stopping a good meter away. The distance hurt her worse than the guilt.

"So," she returned.

"What exactly happened back there?" he asked. "I would like to know the reason why I had to send everyone home, including some very grumpy relations of yours. Relations certain that I'd done something to upset you."

Lily flinched. "James again?"

"Along with your grandparents, your uncle Ron, and half your aunts. And my parents weren't much happier either."

"Shit, your _parents_ were there?" Lily gaped.

"Well, mom was. Lyra too—dad really can't be allowed to spend a few hours with your Uncle Ron, and probably not a night with your mum."

Lily groaned and put a hand over her eyes before sighing. She let her hand drop to her thigh, almost making herself drop the cigarette she still had clamped in her other hand. She straightened and tossed it away—Scorpius looked confused as it fell into the bin that she had recently been kicking. "Take a walk with me?" she asked.

He frowned, but nodded. She turned and he began to follow but she quickly had to stop. "Hold on a sec-" she grunted, slipping off her high heels and transfiguring them into running shoes. She wasn't going to go walking for who knew how long in heels. Lacing the shoes up, she glanced up to see Scorpius' half amused look which he quickly smoothed back into practiced blankness.

She stood and joined him as they began to walk again. After a few minutes of awkward silence where she tried to work the courage to explain, he finally spoke. "Just how long do I have to wait before I find out why you ditched your own party that I worked my ass off to plan?"

She kept her eyes forward. "I'm…trying to think of how to put this," she grumbled then sighed. "Well…I'm leaving tomorrow-"

"Hence the party."

She glared at him, but he was impervious for once. "Did you want to know or not?"

"Fine—just—talk already."

"Then let me," she snapped, then hurried to talk again before he could. "I'm leaving tomorrow, for a whole month when we probably won't get to see each other often, and for the last week, we've spoken all of a dozen words to each other. I'd been hoping I'd finally get a chance to spend some time with you-"

"Salazar, do not tell me you just ran off because you were mad we weren't going to get a chance to talk?" Most people would have thought that was quite accusatory, but Lily couldn't help but smirk a bit. He actually did want to know, even if he was being rude about it.

She'd get back at him anyways. "No, let me finish."

"Well, go on then."

"Fine," she began. "I'm pregnant."

She kept walking even when he stopped dead behind her. She was nearly a meter away before she turned back to look at him. His look was utterly flabbergasted. She had to fight not to giggle as he tried to make sense of that statement. "Wait, _what?"_

"I'm pregnant," she repeated. "And, I was going to tell you later." He continued to stare. She sighed and grabbed his hand to get him walking again. "I had it all planned out, you see. I was going to take a quick shower, grab the bottle of champagne, and then, I was going to make a point to only pour you a glass-"

"-so I'd ask why you weren't drinking," he finished for her.

"Exactly. And when we got home…"

"That plan went down the drain," he muttered. "Fuck, are you hormonal?"

"Merlin, just because I'm pregnant, doesn't mean I wouldn't have gotten pissed anyways!" she snapped, but then forced herself from going on. "Just—just. You know, what? Here's a tip. _Never, ever_ ask a pregnant woman is she's hormonal. Just like when they're PMS-ing. Just don't."

He looked very much like he wanted to say something, but thankfully he decided not to. He turned his face so he was looking forward again—that was more worrying to her then him retorting. After a moment though, he started to speak again. "Are…are you sure you're pregnant?"

"Yes. I checked as many ways as I know how—I even tried Muggle ways, you know."

Scorpius snorted and fell silent again.

_He…still hasn't really reacted yet,_ Lily noted, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"So…" he tried but didn't finish.

"So," she repeated, almost teasingly.

"Do yo—do you know if it's a boy or girl yet?" he blurted.

She stopped to stare at him; squashing down the urge to laugh, she tried to be as gentle as possible—besides she was the one to walk out on her own party, if he could look past that, she could be decent enough not to tease him. "No. I—no. I just found out a week ago, babe."

If he was aware of his own blunder, or her overlooking it, he failed to signal as much through his expression, although his fingers finally did curl around her own. They both began to walk again. "So…"

"Alright, cut it out with the 'So's already, that's the third time you've done that," she laughed, and she noticed he finally smiled—or rather smirked. "Well. Anyway. Can we at least pretend for the rest of the night that I didn't make a fool of myself, and let it go?"

"Fine. But," he began, pulling her to stop once more, "you're going to have to explain to everyone why you left."

She groaned. "Bless magic—if I had to hand write every note, my hand wouldn't un-cramp until I get back."

"Speaking of leaving. Should you be going to Africa if you're pregnant? What if you catch something that could-"

"After all the hell I went through for the past month, I am _not_ cancelling now. I'll be careful," she promised. "And when I get back, you'll be just in time to help as I clean out my stomach with morning sickness."

"Oh bloody joy."

She laughed, feeling at last relieved from her guilty conscience. Smiling, she reached up and locked her fingers behind his neck. "Are we good now? Say yes, please."

He returned the smile and clasped his arms around her waist. "Yes. Yes, I'd say we are."

Rocking side to side gently, Lily chuckled. "You know, I seem to remember doing this before."

Scorpius smirked. "How about we just pick up where we left off, then. We still have that bottle of champagne waiting at home."

She let go of his neck and wrapped one of her arms around his before starting to walk back towards the apartment. "Better hope so. Uncle George has this thing where he considers alcohol communal property." She laughed as he grimaced, joining him in walking a little faster back home.


End file.
